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(group member since Aug 04, 2010)
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from the Reading with Style group.
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Task 10.9 Play the NumbersThe winter Challenge is held the 12th, 1st, and 2nd months. Read a book that was originally published in a year which contains the numerals 1 and 2, such as 2011, 1925, 1862, etc.
Witches of Lychford (Lychford #1) (2015) by Paul Cornell (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 144 pages)
+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.7 set in United Kingdom)
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 20 + 15 = 35
Task 10.5 Debut (or most recently published book)Read an author's debut book or most recently published book as of December 1, 2019.
The author is listed as “anonymous”. This book was first published Nov 19, 2019. I believe that this is the most recently published book of his/hers as of Dec 1, 2019. (Only 11 days after the Nov. 19th publication!)
A Warning (2019) by Anonymous (Hardcover, 259 pages) [973.933092]
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.2 starts w/”A”; #10.9(1&2 in date))
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 00 + 20 = 20
My notes from Spring 2011 listed Margaret Atwood, Thomas Hardy and Louise Erdrich, in addition to the ones already mentioned.
Task 20.6 Monster ReduxRead a book with one of the following in the title: Devil(s)/Demon(s), Witch(es), Vampire(s), Zombie(s)/Undead, Ghost(s), or Werewolf(s).
The Saturday Night Ghost Club (2018) by Craig Davidson (Paperback, 224 pages)
Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général Nominee for Fiction (2018)
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 745 + 20 = 765
Task 15.10 PnM2 E2F-2. E-H (First letter of Author’s name)
Summer Reading (2007) by Hilma Wolitzer (Hardcover, 252 pages)
+30 Task
+100 Completion Bonus
Task Total: 30 + 100 = 130
Grand Total: 615 + 130 = 745
Task 20.5 Non-LinearAlternates present day action with passages from the past events showing ‘how we got here’.
Shatter War (Time Shards #2) (2019) by Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald (Paperback, 496 pages)
Review: Shatter War is a sequel to Time Shards. The premise (from goodreads): An unimaginable cataclysm in the 23rd century shatters years of the Earth's timeline into jumbled fragments. In Book #1, the reader is introduced to a half dozen or so protagonists from various periods of time. The locations didn’t shift; only the time periods; hence the protagonists were all in London when time shattered. Book #1 was all about the survival of a small number of characters, including plenty of action. (view spoiler) Book #2 begins with the ‘unimaginable cataclysm’ from Book#1 and segues into the survivors of Book #1 talking. This informs the reader of the ‘cataclysm’ and the rules of the new reality that our survivors must deal with. Usually in trilogies, the reader loses needed information if Book #1 is skipped and reading begins with Book #2. Not this series! The important plot points from Book #1 are introduced in the first 20 pages of Book #2. The characters can each be described in 1 sentence stereotypes – including – a ‘James Bond’ type British male from WW2, a 21st Century American fresh from the California beaches, a young Celtic warrior from the Dark Ages, the historical figure ‘Nellie Bly’ from Edwardian times, etc. Like Book #1, Book #2 has plenty of action. The novel ends with “to be continued”. I enjoyed this book better than its predecessor because it included why things were happening. Recommended only for fans of action-packed science fiction.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 585 + 30 = 615
Task 15.9 PnM2 A-1A-1. Canada, USA, Mexico, and the Caribbean (at least 75%)
Foul Play at the Fair (Celebration Bay #1) (2012) by Shelley Freydont
Setting: Upstate New York
+30 Task
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 555 + 30 = 585
Would an author who was born 1901-2000 and is still alive would count for4. Author was born in one century died the next (xx01-xx00).
Thanks
Task 15.8 PnM2 E-6E-6. Title contains a Q, X, or Z
Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards #1) (2018) by Jennifer Estep (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 443 pages)
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 535 + 20 = 555
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 668 Deedee wrote: "Task 15.7 PnM2 A-1A-1. Canada, USA, Mexico, and the Caribbean (at least 75%)
Set entirely in California, USA
Tortilla Flat (1935) by John Steinbeck
Oops! Well, OK then. I don't think Tortilla Flat fits anywhere else this season.
Task 10.2 Book Lover's Day
Read a book shelved at least 15 times as Books about Books.
Between the Lines (Between the Lines #1) (2012) by Jodi Picoult (Goodreads Author) and her daughter, Samantha van Leer (Young Adult) (Hardcover, 353 pages)
Lexile 770L
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 520 + 10 = 530
I'd like to re-do Post #704Here's the replacement post:
Task 20.4 Boomer
Tessa Hadley is a Baby Boomer
Sunstroke and Other Stories (2007) by Tessa Hadley
+20 Task
+05 (#20.8 TH = Thorium (atomic number 90))
+10 Not-a-Novel: short story collections
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
That would add +05 to my grand total
Grand Total: 540
Task 10.4 ReplayReplay of Summer Task
10.7 Summer Shorts (Mary's Task)
Read a book of short works (stories, essays, poems, plays etc) where no single work in the book is more than 100 pages
The Colossus of New York (2003) by Colson Whitehead [974.7]
Review: Colson Whitehead wrote all thirteen essays in this book. The first essay was published in The New York Times Magazine. That essay sets up the premise for the rest of the essays, namely, ‘I love New York City!’. The other essays are new to this book. They are written in a very impressionistic style – here’s a sample:
(p. 27) “Wear your totem item and everything will be okay. If only you’d done laundry, you wouldn’t be in this position. Regret, scavenge, assemble. The blessing of a secret stash of matching socks. The name of his cologne is Hamper, Recommended by Four Out of Five Whiffs.”
Sometimes impressionistic style essays work, sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe I’d be more impressed by this collection if I had ever lived in New York City? The essays are short so if an essay doesn’t connect, stay with it because the next essay will. I particularly enjoyed the 'overheard' portions of the essays -- supposedly conversations the author overheard while walking the streets of New York City. Recommended for fans of Colson Whitehead and for those with a positive opinion of New York City.
+10 Task
+05 Combo (#10.7 Vowels whItheEAd, cOlson)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel: Essays
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 500 + 35 = 535
Task 10.7 A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y (Anika's Task)E, I, O, and sometimes Y
GwEndOlYn kIste
The Rust Maidens (2018) by Gwendolyn Kiste (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 252 pages)
Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel (2018)
+10 Task
Grand Total: 490 + 10 = 500
Task 20.8 Periodic Table (Owlette's Task)TH = Thorium (atomic number 90)
Sunstroke and Other Stories (2007) by Tessa Hadley
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel: short story collections
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 460 + 30 = 490
replacement post for this book is post #0718 below
Task 15.8 PnM2 D-2D-2. Genre: mystery, thriller, crime, horror, suspense
Main Page Genre: Mystery
Octavia Gone (Alex Benedict #8) (2019) by Jack McDevitt (Hardcover, 384 pages)
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 440 + 20 = 460
I would like to add Sean McMullen to the Boomer database. ISFDB lists his birthday as 21 December 1948.
Task 15.7 PnM2 A-1A-1. Canada, USA, Mexico, and the Caribbean (at least 75%)
Set entirely in California, USA
Tortilla Flat (1935) by John Steinbeck
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 410 + 20 = 430
Task 10.9 Science! (Mary's Task)Read a book classified as science or mathematics by any library.
Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature (2004) by Tim Flannery (Hardcover, 258 pages) [599.222]
Review:Tim Flannery wrote this book for the reader who paid attention in High School Biology class but then never took another science class. He explains kangaroos – how and what they eat, how they reproduce, the challenges they faced over the centuries, including modern-day challenges posed by the human habitation of Australia. In between the mini-lectures, Tim Flannery includes personal anecdotes of travelling throughout Australia, of searching for fossils in unlikely places, and other personal matters.
So we’ll have a chapter with sentences like this: (p. 67: The delayed development of the embryo implies one further feature of the environment that shaped the ancestral kangaroo….), followed by a chapter with sentences like this: (p. 27: After passing South Australia’s Coorong on that motorcycle journey in 1975, stinkers and their chocolate females were the only kangaroos I saw.) I appreciated the personal reminisces as much as the information on marsupial reproduction.
Recommended for non-scientists interested in reading about the scientific method, Australia, and kangaroos.
+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.4 born January 28, 1956)
+10 Not-a-Novel: non-fiction
+10 Review
Task 10 + 05 + 10 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 375 + 35 = 410
Task 20.8 Periodic Table (Owlette's Task)RB = Rubidium (atomic number 37)
The Halloween Tree (1972) by Ray Bradbury (Hardcover, 145 pages)
Lexile 800L
Review:Ray Bradbury mainly wrote fantasy stories. He also wrote several stories celebrating boys, aged 10-14, living in a 1950s small Midwestern American town. This novel does both. Our group of boys, aged 10-14, go trick-or-treating on Halloween, and have a fantastical adventure while doing so. (No females are present in the story – hence it fails the Bechdel Test). Bradbury’s prose is aimed at the middle school readers. I was surprised the Lexile was 800L! In the 1990s the story was made into a cartoon TV movie. The story is very visible, with numerous descriptions of the ghosts & mummies & witches & black cats & etc.. The Halloween Tree with hundreds of jack-o'-lanterns hanging on its branches, the haunted house, the skeletal guide all set the scene as being Halloween. The ending is upbeat. I like Bradbury’s more adult stories better than this one.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 345 + 30 = 375
