Deedee’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2010)

Deedee’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

According to goodreads, Nury Vittachi is a journalist and author based in Hong Kong. He also wrote the novel The Feng Shui Detective :)

Task 20.2 Roald Dahl
Read any short story collection or anthology that includes a short story that has been adapted to film, or read a novella of fewer than 150 pages that has been adapted into a film.

Explicitly approved in Help Thread:
Steampunk: Poe (pub: text 1849; illustrations: 2011) by Edgar Allan Poe; illustrated by Zdenko Bašić and Manuel Sumberac (Hardcover, 263 pages)

Poe’s Stories and Poems originally published 1831-1849.

+20 Task
+05 Combo (#20.1 Veteran)
+15 Oldies -151 to 250 years old: (1766-1865)

Task Total: 20+ 05 + 15 = 40

Grand Total: 215 + 40 = 255

Task 10.3-George Orwell
Read a book that has dystopia (in any of its possible forms) on the Goodreads book page.

The Disappearance of Ember Crow (The Tribe #2) (2013) by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 432 pages) (Young Adult)

+10 Task
No combos or styles because YA book has no Lexile score.

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 205 + 10 = 215

Task 20.4 Evelyn Waugh
Read one of the top 125 from this list There Ought to be a Band.

On September 15, 2016: #12 on list

The Cosmic Puppets (1957) by Philip K. Dick (Paperback, 150 pages)
Review: Philip K. Dick was a young man, only 29 years old, when this novel was published. The novel begins like an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which a typical 1950s man in a car travelling on vacation stops for the day in a sleepy small town located in a valley between two tall mountains. As the novel progresses, it gets progressively weirder and weirder, until it inevitably reaches its astounding and amazing conclusion. The reader can tell that this is an early novel of Philip K. Dick because everything is explained and resolved by the conclusion of the novel. Also, because the prose clearly and straightforwardly tells the story (some of Philip K. Dick’s later novels get somewhat hallucinatory.) Recommended for fans of 1950s science fiction and fans of The Twilight Zone. Additionally – before reading this novel, it would be helpful if the reader is familiar with the concepts of “avatars” and “golems”.

+20 Task
+10 Combo (#10.4 pub. 1957, #10.6 Kurt Vonnegut)
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1941-1991)
+10 Review

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

Grand Total: 160 + 45 = 205

Task 10.9 Next?: Karen Michele's Task
Start a new series or read the next book in a series you are reading.

Explicitly approved by Elizabeth (Alaska) in the Help Thread, thanks!

Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire #1) (2016) by Michael J. Sullivan (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 432 pages)
Review:Back in 2012 I had read the author’s first two novels ever printed, Theft of Swords. I thought reading that omnibus was like watching somebody else play “Dungeons & Dragons” – there were parts where the action stopped and someone rolled dice to see what happens next (or so it seemed). Fast forward to 2016. I was in the library, checking out the new books. Age of Myth was one of the books, a nice, thick epic fantasy novel, with a huge tree on the cover. I started reading the book at the library, and it was good, so I checked it out and brought it home and THEN realized it was written by the same guy who wrote the unimpressive Theft of Swords. Oh, well. I continued reading Age of Myth. Michael J. Sullivan has made great improvements as a writer. I really enjoyed Age of Myth, which read like an adventuresome epic fantasy novel and NOT like a “Dungeons & Dragons” episode. Pluses: interesting world building; characters that were not-all-good, not-all-bad, even when they were in conflict with each other; and humor that arises from the events of the novel. Minuses: mainly that there is nothing to interest the non-fantasy-novel reader.

Overall: This is a novel that combines the standard elements of epic fantasy novels in an entertaining way. If a reader was looking for something completely new and different in epic fantasy – well, this novel is not that novel. It doesn’t pretend to be. This novel has warriors and magicians and giants and wise, cryptic seers, like most epic fantasy novels do. I enjoyed the reading experience and I’ll be looking for the next volume in the series when it is published in 2017.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20

Grand Total: 140 + 20 = 160

If a book, like The Disappearance of Ember Crow, is shelved at BPL as "YA" but has no Lexile score, is it eligible for combo points? Thanks.

Task 20.6 John Buchan
Read any work by an author who has worked as a journalist.

Selected Short Stories of John O'Hara (1956) by John O'Hara (Paperback, 256 pages)
Review: The publisher Modern Library originally published this collection in 1956. The book contains 32 short stories, all by John O’Hara, all published elsewhere previous to being published in this book. Thirty of the thirty-two stories are 10 pages long or less. The stories are slices of American life post-World War II through early 1950s. The language is clear and sparse and effective. He tells large chunks of the story via dialog between characters, something that is hard to do effectively. Some of the attitudes endorsed by the author are, well, very dated 1950s attitudes. Examples include: driving while intoxicated is no big deal; cigarette smoking is a sign of sophistication; and dark suntans are a sign of good health.

Reading these stories felt like a visit to an alien land. (For me, that’s a GOOD thing! LOL) I can see why the literary folks in the 1950s liked John O’Hara (clear writing, good dialog); and I can see why he’s fallen by the wayside in the 2010s (dated attitudes).

+20 Task
+10 Combo (#10.4, #10.6 (map of Edith Wharton))
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1941-1991)
+10 Review

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

Grand Total: 95 + 45 = 140

Task 15.1 HaHM-Z female, no repeats

My Wife's Affair (2010) by Nancy Woodruff
Author Initials: NW

Letters used: N W

+15 Task

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 80 + 15 = 95

Task 20.3 Poets
Read a book of poetry by one of these British World War I Poets OR Formalist Poets OR Modernist Poets.

From Formalist Poets

W.B. Yeats (1938) by W.B. Yeats (Hardcover, 138 pages)
Review: I normally don’t read poetry. The blogpost Why I hate poetry contains two comments that reflect my problems with most poetry:

“ With poetry, you’re given basically nothing, and you’re expected to identify facts that you would have absolutely no way of knowing. “ Well, presumably the poet’s friends and family would get the references, but I don’t. A contemporary example might be a quick reference to “Luke’s father” which anybody who has seen the “Star Wars” films know exactly what the poet is trying to communicate but a century from now will have readers scratching their heads in puzzlement. A lot of these older poems make references like that except that I don’t get them which leaves me feeling frustrated. Like the blogpost also says:
“Generally, though, I think poetry tends to be a big game of “Guess what I’m thinking!””

Still, I don’t hate poetry. I give poems a try whenever there is one of these tasks. I usually go through several volumes of poetry before I find one that I can make sense of. This time, I found this edition of Yeats’ poems. The book was part of the series that Barnes & Nobles did a few years back, an Introduction to Poetry series aimed at the non-poetry reader ---- people like me!

This edition of Yeats contains a selection of poems first published 1889-1938. (I used 1938 as the publication date for combo points.) And, surprisingly, after 1 or 2 readings, I was able to understand most of the poems, yeah!

My favorite one was The Lake Isle of Innisfree (with its “bee-loud glade” which brings “peace” amongst “the linnet’s wings”.).

About half the poems include the sentiment that it is a tragedy that people get old.
Why should they think that are for ever young? (from “Her Vision in the Wood”)
Here at life’s end (the whole of “An Acre of Grass”)
Or here, in poem entitled “Politics” (but the contents are not about politics)
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms.

Maybe he’s saying it were better to make love and not war? Anyways ……

Part of one poem, entitled A Coat, that I couldn’t decode:

While I, from that reed-throated whisperer
Who comes at need, although not now as once
A clear articulation in the air,
But inwardly, surmise companions
Beyond the fling of the dull ass’s hoof……

??????????? I can define each word of the poem but what in the world is Yeats talking about??? Anyways ……

Overall, I’m glad I read this book. I’ve always heard Yeats mentioned as a great poet and I had not read his poems before; and now I have.

+20 Task (Poets)
+10 Combo (#10.4, #10.6 (map of Edith Wharton))
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1866-1940)
+10 Review

Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 50

Grand Total: 20 + 50 = 70

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%... says the following about John O'Hara:

He worked as a reporter for various newspapers.

Task 10.4 Hubert Selby
Read a book originally published during Selby's lifetime: 1928-2004.

Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics (2004) by Donna Brazile (Hardcover, 338 pages) [921/Biography]
Review: Donna Brazile was the Democratic campaign manager for the 2000 presidential campaign of Al Gore. She is presently the interim chair of the DNC (Democratic National Committee). In 2004, Donna Brazile published this memoir. The first 75 pages summarized her upbringing in Kenner, Louisiana. She was the 3rd of 9 children in a working poor, Catholic, African American family. Through hard work and a bit of luck, she attended Louisiana’s flagship university, LSU. In 1981, newly graduated from college, she moved to Washington, D. C. The rest of the memoir centered on Donna Brazile’s political education, as she learns how to run a campaign, how to get “a seat at the table”, and how to accomplish goals in the American political system. There is almost nothing about her personal life post-1981, with the exception of how she mourned the deaths of her parents. Also, in the post-1996 portion of the memoir, I got the feeling that she was pulling her punches because she still expects to work for/with the people she mentions in the memoir.

It is interesting to see what Brazile said in 2004 about political figures still politically active in 2016. Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Axelrod gets one sentence; so does 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Hillary Clinton, like Donna Brazile, was involved in organizations like the Children’s Defense Fund, and is highly praised for improving the lives of the poor. No mention of Barack Obama or Donald Trump.

Recommended for anyone who follows modern American politics.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20

Grand Total: 00 + 20 = 20

Will Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire #1) (2016) by Michael J. Sullivan fit? The author says in his blog: Riyria Blogspot.

I want to take just a moment to discuss the works I have in series, as it can sometimes be confusing to people. First I should mention that my new series, Legend of the First Empire, has five books and all of them are written. The first book in this series will be coming out June 28th, 2016, and I don't yet have dates for the other four, but as soon as I do, I'll let you know. The titles of the books are: Age of Myth | Age of Swords | Age of War | Age of Legends | Age of Empire. All five books are setup in goodreads so you can add them to your shelves now if you wish to be notified when they are released

Thanks!

Task 15.2 FYTS: Time Traveler
1880-1930

1925: The Painted Veil (1925) by W. Somerset Maugham

+15 Task

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 545 + 15 = 560

Vera Brittain
Geraldine Brooks
Elizabeth Chadwick
Joyce Carol Oates

Arthur C. Clarke
Harry Harrison
Jack McDevitt
Frederick Pohl
Timothy Powers

Elizabeth Moon
Catherine Asaro
Jean M. Auel
Patricia Briggs
David Brin
Daniel Defoe
Charles DeLint
L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Spider Robinson
Sharon Shinn
Robert Louis Stevenson
S. M. Stirling

Saul Bellow
Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis
J. G. Ballard
George Gissing
Alice Munro
R. K. Narayan

Ha Jin
Elizabeth Berg
Peter Carey
Wallace Stegner

Thornton Wilder
Jane Austen
Rumer Godden
Elinor Lipman
Sarah Vowell

Trying not to do duplicates --- here are a few new ones for the list --
Gore Vidal
Thomas Frank
Walker Percy
Edward Rutherford

Walt Whitman
Diane Ackerman

Edith Wharton
Robertson Davies
Thomas Hardy
Joanne Harris
Henry James
Doris Lessing
John O’Hara
Leo Tolstoy

Kurt Vonnegut
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Christopher Moore
George Orwell
John Steinbeck

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Deedee wrote: "So for Murders in the Rue Morgue, either The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales or Steampunk: Poe (which contains 7 stories including Murders in ..."

Oh, good :). I have a library request in for Steampunk: Poe. It will be ..... entertaining ..... to see what the illustrators do with Poe's stories. I remember my father reading me the story The Cask of Amontillado when I was in elementary school but otherwise all the stories will be new-to-me.

Task 10.6 Traveling the DDC way
Read a book shelved in the 900s (900-999) at the Brooklyn Public Library, using the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya (2016) by William Carlsen (Hardcover, 544 pages) [972.81]

+10 Task
+05: Jumbo 500-699 Pages:

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 530 + 15 = 545

So for Murders in the Rue Morgue, either The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales or Steampunk: Poe (which contains 7 stories including Murders in the Rue Morgue, plus a handful of poems) would work? Thanks

Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)
Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.

Some of Your Blood (1961) by Theodore Sturgeon

+10 Task

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 520 + 10 = 530

I lost my focus this summer and wound up with a dozen or so 10.7 tasks plus a dozen or so other tasks done. Fall I should get my focus back :)