Katy’s
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(group member since Aug 04, 2010)
Katy’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 461-480 of 1,214
Just in case...The Missing American has 369 ratings and 3.81 average...putting here in case the average drops!
20.3 Theodore H. WhiteSan Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant
+20 task (Grant)
+5 combo (20.8 - "I'm going to want a cup of tea in front of me...She leads me to the kitchen where she fills the electric kettle and sets the water to boil." Loc 52 on my Kindle!)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 500
Thanks for another wonderful season, mods!!
20.3 Theodore H White Deadline by Mira Grant
+20 task (grant)
+5 combo (20.8 - "Mahir sipped his tea, grimaced, and continued." page 381)
+5 jumbo (584 pages)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 475
15.7 - BlackjackWhy They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities by John Warner
Jack of Spades (John)
King of Spades (killing)
+20 Task
+5 not a novel
Task total: 25
Season Total: 445
15.6 - Blackjack Feed by Mira Grant
2 of diamonds (author also publishes as Seanan McGuire)
5 of diamonds (599 pages)
Ace of spades (book 1 in Newsflesh series)
+20 Task
+5 Female author
Task total: 25
Season Total: 420
20.2 August Wilson The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter
This was a different kind of read for me. It took me a long time to read, largely because it took a while to get into it, and I found it easier to put down and come back to than many books are for me. I'm sure the stress of the current circumstances played a role too. However, I did keep coming back. The premise is that a law professor, Talcott Garland, has to follow clues left by his recently-deceased father, who was once a potential Supreme Court pick until his fortunes changed. The trail leads him into and out of all manner of buried family secrets, alongside his slightly obsessive sister Mariah and various friends and enemies. Along the way, we learn about his own marital problems, race relations in an elite law school, and more. There is a LOT to unpack in the book, which makes it (for me at least) slow going, but not unenjoyable. I didn't put the book down thinking, wow, I loved it, but neither did I feel like it was a waste of time.
+20 task
+20 combo (10.2, 10.4, 20.3, 20.8 - "She leads me to the kitchen where we sit on opposite sides of the counter drinking tea." - page 748 on Google Books)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (672 pages)
Task Total: 55
Season Total: 395
10.6 Richard Adams Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
I read this only because a real-life book club (I can't say in person anymore, but a group of us meeting on Zoom!) wanted to read it -- and they all wanted to read it before they watched the TV show! I didn't even know there was a show - though I enjoyed the book enough that I might even watch it some day! The premise is complicated, but basically we're in a time where humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt, and has outposts beyond. An incident - a ship falling off radar and everyone in it seemingly dying - sparks a cascade of events involving Jim and his team, who work on a water hauling ship but step up in this new world order, and Detective Miller, a burnt out Asteroid Belt cop. In many ways this is a classic space opera type of book - lots of details around how gravity affects life, the nitty gritty of space travel, and plenty of action. It's also really well done in terms of character development and pacing - it was a page turner and I definitely cared about the people involved. It took me 50-75 pages to get into it but then it was smooth sailing - and I suspect I'll pick up the next books (maybe I'll try to snag them before the summer season starts!!).
+10 task (154,328 ratings, 4.26 average)
+5 jumbo (561 pages)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 340
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I sent a package to Phoenix for my great-granddaughter's 2nd birthday later this month. A very active and inquisitive 2-year old in the house! So my granddaughter hid the package in the refrigerator."Ha ha! That sounds like my daughter, who's almost 2. It has been a bit tough being isolated in a NYC apartment with an extremely active 2 year old, for sure. As soon as this all happened, my brother and my parents sent care packages of new books for her, which she likes, but not as much as she likes climbing all over the furniture and exploring every nook and cranny! I would have to hide things in the fridge too :)
Luckily, the city has shut down car traffic to a number of streets, including one big street near my house, so people can get out of their homes and walk/bike/hang out outdoors without getting too close to others. So we put on our masks and go out to play most days -- but the rest of the time it's all about working from home and entertaining her in the living room!!
My Cup of Tea All Clear by Connie Willis
This is the sequel to Blackout, which I just raved about in the prior post :) All Clear continues the story left off in Blackout - the obstacles grow steeper, the stakes grow higher, and of course the war continues to grow in its danger. While All Clear still has moments of levity, I think its tone is much more serious than Blackout. It's a touch less engaging in some ways, but by the time you're onto the second book, I find that you can't stop and just want to know what happens to these people. Without giving away important plot points, I'll say that what I love most about this book is the themes that emerge as the book continues. I walk away with the message that we all have a role to play in any crisis or challenge, and we can all rise to the occasion, that the small acts of kindness (or cruelty) can have enormous impacts, that our lives matter, and that in the end, humans can come together for good and have tremendous strength and ability to grow. I love those messages (and they seem perfect for our current time!) and that's a big part of why I will likely find myself rereading these books for years to come.
+20 task ("She bustled off to make him tea and a soft-boiled egg." 22% on Kindle)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (656 pages)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 315
My Cup of Tea Blackout by Connie Willis
This is a reread for me - it's one of my favorite books of all time, and given everything going on in the world, I felt the need for some comfort reading. And it was exactly the right choice. If you don't know Connie Willis's Oxford Time Travel series, the premise is that it's 2060 and we've mastered time travel, so universities (at least Oxford!) are filled with historians who actually go and do their research on scene. Most of her books in this series spend the majority of time in the past, but have scenes of those left back at Oxford. I love the whole series for a number of reasons -- the range (humor, adventure, tragedy...), the characters, the writing style, and because since childhood I've wanted to time travel! But this and its sequel are my favorites. In Blackout, the historians are traveling to England during WWII -- different specific times and places, but due to some mishaps, they end up together, in London, during the Blitz. Polly, Mike, and Eileen are trying to survive the Blitz, avoid giving away that they're actually from the future, get back to that future despite technical difficulties, and also do the very human work of carrying on relationships, obligations, and so forth with the people who belong to that time.
+20 task ("'Oh you poor lambs,' she said and insisted on making them toasted cheese and pouring Eileen a cup of tea." page 324)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (610 pages)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 280
20.3 Theodore H. White Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
+20 task
No styles - low Lexile
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 245
10.7 In Memoriam The Holdout by Graham Moore
This was an interesting one to review. It should have been right up my alley - I got on the hold list at the library as soon as I heard about it. And I did find the plot reasonably engaging - it kept me reading. But even as I read, and especially after finishing, there were some flaws that did bug me. I didn't love a lot of the main characters, and while they were distinct, I didn't feel like they were especially well developed as rounded people. There were also some plot holes - the overall concept, without spoilers, is that some years ago, a jury in a high profile trial acquits the defendant because of one juror - the holdout, and main character. Now a TV station is doing a reunion/retrospective of the case, everyone still assumes the defendant was in fact guilty, and blames this one woman. A murder occurs at the reunion. The concept was interesting but by the end I was still left thinking...wait, but why? So...mixed review. It's a quick, light read that is relaxing if you like mysteries and are willing to let go of some plot holes for a reasonably entertaining story.
+10 task
+5 combo (20.8 - "Crystal made ginger tea" (page 230)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 225
Ugh, math was off. We're all good!
15.5 Blackjack The Dark Corners of the Night by Meg Gardiner
3 of hearts (#3 in UNSUB series)
7 of spades (corners)
Jack of clubs (darK)
+5 female author
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 205
15.4 Blackjack Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
3 of spades
5 of hearts (set entirely in New York)
9 of spades (pub 2019)
Task total: 15
Season Total: 175
15.3 - Blackjack The Hangman by Louise Penny
Ace of diamonds (87 pages)
10 of diamonds (series is up to 17!)
Total = 21
+15 task
+5 female author
Post total: 20
Season total: 160
10.1 Thirst for More The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
This is #11 in the Armand Gamache series, which I really like. I have listened to all of them, including this one, on audio, although this one is the first to have a different narrator. At first it was jarring, as I loved the old narrator, but I got used to it, and while I still don't think he's perfect at bringing the town of Three Pines to life, he's pretty good! The series is based around Chief Inspector of the Quebec Surete, Gamache (though he is retired in this book) and many of the books are set in the small village of Three Pines. In this installment, we're away from some of the drama and intrigue of the last two books (one excellent, one just all right) and back to a typical mystery - but an intriguing one. A child is murdered after claiming to find a giant gun in the woods -- and meanwhile, a serial killer's play is potentially being produced in town. I love the plots of these books as well as the calm, lovely atmosphere (funny choice of words for a murder mystery!) -- I would 100% go and live in Three Pines, even with the frequent murders!!
+10 task (I've read 10 books by her before March 1, 2020)
+10 combo (10.4, 20.8)
"Once inside, she got towels to dry themselves off, stoked the woodstove, and poured tea, hot and strong" in chapter 28
+10 review
Task Total: 30
New Total: 140
15.2 BlackjackThe Dry by Jane Harper
9 diamonds (set in Australia)
6 clubs (harper = 6 letters)
3 clubs (352 pages)
+15 Task
+5 Female author
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 110
20.8 My Cup of Tea Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
This was an interesting read -- had gotten a lot of buzz so I was happy to get my hands on it before the libraries shut down! The premise is that the "houses" (secret societies) at Yale (like Skull & Bones) all practice different forms of magic, and the "ninth house", Lethe, is charged with supervising and controlling the activities of the other 8. Alex, the new Lethe recruit, was chosen for the society because she has the ability to see ghosts. After some magic goes wrong, and a murder is committed, Alex is thrust into the position of having to unravel the situation. The narrative jumps between three time frames, which was jarring at first (though not confusing, because the different characters in each section make it easier to tell when the section takes place). I really liked the characters and enjoyed reading, though it took a while to get into. It also made me curious about the actual secret societies -- all of the societies in the book except Lethe are real, but hopefully don't do the magic described here!
+20 task (page 83 - "She poured out the tea and offered a cup to Alex. 'Help yourself to cream and sugar if you like. Or there's fresh mint.")
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 90
