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from the Reading with Style group.
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Task 20.7 U.S. (Rebekah's Task)Read a book whose author has initials that exactly match US State Abbreviations.
MS: Mississippi
The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe (2013) by Mary Simses
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 500 + 20 = 520
Task 10.10 Group ReadsMurder Must Advertise (Lord Peter Wimsey #10) (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#20.5 (as of 08/22/16) – #43; #10.7 – “M”)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 480 + 20 = 500
Would Karen Traviss qualify?In wikipedia of Karen Traviss it says that she:
.....served in both the Territorial Army and the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service.
Task 20.7 U.S. (Rebekah's Task)Read a book whose author has initials that exactly match US State Abbreviations.
LA: Louisiana
Buried in a Book (Novel Idea #1) (2012) by Lucy Arlington
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 460 + 20 = 480
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Mr. Splitfoot (2016) by Samantha Hunt
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 450 + 10 = 460
Does Charles de Lint count as "C D" or as "C L" or not at all?What about John le Carré? Does it count as "J L" or not count because it is "J C"?
Thanks
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon (Paperback, 197 pages)
Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1954)
International Fantasy Award for Fiction (1954)
Review: I’ve wanted to read more of Sturgeon’s stories ever since I read this in his goodreads biography: Sturgeon also wrote for television and holds among his credits two episodes of the original 1960s Star Trek series, for which he created the Vulcan mating ritual and the expression “Live long and prosper.” Additionally, and interestingly, Theodore Sturgeon was the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut’s recurring fictional character Kilgore Trout.
This particular novel won awards for Sturgeon back in the 1950s. The story focuses on a small group of people who represent the next stage of evolution. (In 1950s lingo: on MUTANTS!)
The novel is in three parts. The middle part, Baby is Three, was published first in a science fiction magazine. The other two parts were never published separately but are written to give a prequel and a sequel to the main Baby is Three part of the story. Sturgeon tells part of the story as the stream-of-consciousness of various characters. This was very unusual in 1950s science fiction and contributes to the awards the novel received. The easily offended will be offended by the casual sexism and racism in the 1953 novel. (To be fair, the attitudes are those of the characters and not necessarily those of the author.) I’d recommend this one only for fans of science fiction.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 410 + 20 = 430
Task 10.1 Square PegRead a book that does not fit any of the other Reading with Style 10 or 20-point tasks.
The Heart Specialist (2009) by Claire Holden Rothman
Scotiabank Giller Prize Nominee (2009)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 400 + 10 = 410
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
S
Shoes To Die For (A Jaine Austen Mystery #4) (2005) by Laura Levine
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 390 + 10 = 400
Task 20.3 Winners! Read a book which won an award in a year in which the Summer Olympics were held.
Winner: 1988 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Seventh Son (Tales of Alvin Maker #1) (1987) by Orson Scott Card
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.7 “S”)
Task Total: 20 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 365 + 25 = 390
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Mastodonia (1978) by Clifford D. Simak (Hardcover, 213 pages)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 355 + 10 = 365
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Children of Earth and Sky (2016) by Guy Gavriel Kay (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 571 pages)
Review: Guy Gavriel Kay calls his recent novels (including this one) “history with a quarter turn to the fantastic”. In this novel, the author takes the real history of medieval Venice, of Mediterranean pirates, and of the Ottoman Empire, as his starting point. It’s not necessary but it is definitely helpful if the reader knows the real history of those times. The prose is clear and straightforward, easy to read and easy to understand. (Maybe because Guy Gavriel Kay is a fan of “tell, don’t show” school of storytelling?) There is a lot of action and a lot of intrigue. Kay’s problems with women characters continues. (Women are either indistinguishable from men or are obsessed with having no strings attached sexual encounters.) And, lastly, there is the touch of magic affecting everything, including the characters who don’t believe in magic. Recommended for readers of fantasy.
+10 Task
+05 Jumbo 500-699 Pages:
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 05 +10 = 25
Grand Total: 330 + 25 =355
I've finished and posted Isle of Passion by Laura Restrepo for 20.1 -- she was born in 1950Coming into the home stretch on reading Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay for 10.7 -- at 571 pages, it will count for Jumbo points
Task 20.1 South America In honor of this year's Summer Olympics host country: Read a book by an author born in South America.
Isle of Passion (1989) by Laura Restrepo (Hardcover, 298 pages)
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.7 “I”)
+10 Translation
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 285 + 35 = 320
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture (2011) by Peggy Orenstein (Hardcover, 244 pages) [305.23]
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 275 + 10 =285
About halfway through my 20.1 book: Isle of Passion by Laura Restrepo. Combo with 10.7 plus it is a book in translation.
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Mad Hatter's Holiday (Sergeant Cribb #4) (1973) by Peter Lovesey (Paperback, 192 pages)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 265 + 10 =275
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Staged to Death (Caprice De Luca Mystery #1) (2013) by Karen Rose Smith (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 384 pages)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 255 + 10 =265
Task 20.6 WarWorld War One Literature
On July 08, 2016: #60
Coming Up for Air (1939) by George Orwell (Paperback, 278 pages)
Review: This novel is one of Orwell’s pre-World War II novels. Our main character, George Bowling, is our narrator. It is 1938 and he is 45 years old. The novel consists of George telling the listener of his life. Most of the novel is nostalgia for English country life 1900-1914, combined with nostalgia of living as a preteen boy during those years. The prose is straightforward, easy to understand and easy to empathize with. The later part of the novel concerns life in 1938. George Bowling sees that war is coming -- and he's had enough of war in what we now call the First World War. It is disconcerting to read the passages about how German Jews are over-reacting to the threat of Hitler and concentration camps. Of course, he is writing in 1939, and in that year nobody outside of Hitler’s group really believed that a Holocaust could happen. Still, I wonder, if Orwell had the opportunity to revise this novel post-World War II, would he modify those passages about concentration camps. Overall: Recommended for readers of literary fiction, and for those interested in English life in the first half of the twentieth century.
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.7 “C”)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 220 + 35 = 255
