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

Deedee’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Task 15.7

Nebula Award for Best Novel (1983)

No Enemy but Time (1982) by Michael Bishop

+15 task
+5 before 1990

Task Total: 15 + 05 = 20

Grand Total: 610 + 20 = 630

Task 15.6

Newbery Medal Winners
1945

Rabbit Hill (1944) by Robert Lawson
Lexile: 1020L

+15 Task
+05 Pre-1900

Task Total: 15 + 05 = 20

Grand Total: 590 + 20 = 610

Task 15.5

Nordic Council Literature Prize (2010), winner

Purge (2008) by Sofi Oksanen (Goodreads Author), (translated by Lola Rogers) (Paperback, 390 pages)

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 575 + 15 = 590

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "No lobbying on the polls this time?"

All the ones I voted are winning!

Poll 1: I had a hard time deciding between:
an author whose surname is only one syllable
an author whose surname has a double letter
and now I observe they are #1 & #2 in vote totals


Poll 2: An author born 1946-1964 -- good choice for summer months

Poll 3: Rated 5-stars by another RwS group member -- we're an amazing group of readers and I'm confident that a list of our 5-star ratings is a list of amazing books to read

Task 20.1 - Shakespeare's Birthday:
Read a book by an author who was born in one century (1501-1600, 1701-1800, 1901-2000, etc.) and died in the next.

Arnold Bennett
Born: in Hanley, Staffordshire, The United Kingdom : On: May 27, 1867
Died: March 27, 1931

Anna of the Five Towns (1902) by Arnold Bennett

+20 Task
+05 Combo (#20.8 towns)
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1864-1938)

Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35

Grand Total: 540 + 35 = 575

Task 20.2 - The Henrys

In honor of Henry IV (Part 1 & 2), Henry V, and Henry VI (Part 1, 2, 3), read a book shelved as war at least 25 times.

On May 14, 2014 this book was shelved 28 times as war:

In the Shadow of Blackbirds (2013) by Cat Winters (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 387 pages)
Lexile HL800L

+20 Task

Grand Total: 520 + 20 = 540

Task 10.1 - Square Peg:

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol (1842) by Nikolai Gogol; translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Paperback, 435 pages)

+10 Task
+10 Non-Western
+10 Not-a-Novel (novelettes and short stories)
+15 Oldies -151 to 250 years old: (1764-1863)

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 45

Grand Total: 475 + 45 = 520

Task 15.4

Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (1987–2011)
Best books by region - overall & regional winners
1990 regional winner – Africa

Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Paperback, 256 pages)

+15 task
+5 before 1990

Task Total: 15 + 05 = 20

Grand Total: 455 + 20 = 475

First chain, beginning with Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga (which I will finish reading soon)

15.1 Zoe Wicomb
15.2 Nadine Gordimer
15.3 Ousmane Sembène
15.4 Camara Laye
15.5 Georges Simenon
15.6 Georges Bernanos
15.7 Honoré de Balzac
15.8 Ivan Turgenev
15.9 Maxim Gorky

15.10 Rabindranath Tagore or Ivan Bunin or Alexander Pushkin (depending on availability)

All are new-to-me authors. I've had books by Honoré de Balzac and Ivan Turgenev on my TBR for ages :).

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -from Wikipedia: In 1849 he was arrested for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle, a secret society of liberal utopians that also functioned as a literary discussion group. He and other members were condemned to death, but at the last moment, a note from Tsar Nicholas I was delivered to the scene of the firing squad, commuting the sentence to four years' hard labour in Siberia.

Daniel Defoe: from Wikipedia: After his three days in the pillory, Defoe went into Newgate Prison. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's co-operation as an intelligence agent for the Tories.

Task 20.8 - Spring Fling

Read a book with a title which contains a 5 (or more) letter word with only one vowel.

BLOWS

K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist (2009) by Peter Carlson (Hardcover, 327 page)

+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (Non-fiction)

Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30

Grand Total: 425 + 30 = 455

Task 15.3

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography
1976 winner

A New Life of Anton Chekhov (1976) by Ronald Francis Hingley (Hardcover, 358 pages)

+15 task
+5 before 1990
+5 nonfiction

Task Total: 15 + 05 + 05 = 25

Grand Total: 400 + 25 = 425

Task 20.8 - Spring Fling

Read a book with a title which contains a 5 (or more) letter word with only one vowel.

FLASH

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt (2014) by Michael Lewis (Hardcover, 274 pages)

+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (non-fiction)

Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30

Grand Total: 370 + 30 = 400

Task 15.2

Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books
2002 Other nominees:

A Primate's Memoir (2001) by Robert M. Sapolsky

+15 Task
+05 Non-fiction

Task total: 15 + 05 = 20


Grand Total: 350 + 20 = 370

Task 15.1

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
2006 Longlist

Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch (2003) by Sijie Dai; translated by Ina Rilke (Paperback, 287 pages)

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 335 + 15 = 350

Task 20.10 - I Love NYC:

Anton Chekhov
Born: in Taganrog, Russian Federation : On: January 29, 1860
Died: July 15, 1904

Peasants and Other Stories (1903) by Anton Chekhov; edited by Edmund Wilson (Paperback, 479 pages)

The stories by Chekhov were first published 1894 – 1903. Edmund Wilson chose the stories in this volume, and added a 5 page introduction; this version was first published in 1956. Goodreads has the publication date as 1947, I'm not sure why. I count collections like this as having been first published in the year of the latest-published story, which was Betrothed published in 1903, so I added +10 Oldies points. The moderators will decide which date is correct for RWS :0)

+20 task (NYRB: http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints... )
+05 Combo (#20.1 b. 1860 d. 1904)
+10 Non-Western
+10 Not-a-Novel (novellas and short stories)
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1864-1938)

Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 +10 + 10 = 55

Grand Total: 280 + 55 = 335

Task 10.5 - Twelfth Night:
In honor of Twelfth Night, read a book by an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) author. Please provide a link when posting a book for this task.

If you scroll down, Manda Scott discusses “coming out” as a lesbian in this article:

http://janebled.webs.com/apps/blog/en...

“Manda:
I knew I was gay sometime when I was 8 or 9…..”

Hen's Teeth (Kellen Stewart #1) (1996) by Manda Scott

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 270 + 10 = 280

Task 20.10 - I Love NYC:

Joseph Conrad
Born: in Berdichev (formerly Poland), Ukraine : On: December 03, 1857
Died: August 03, 1924


Freya of the Seven Isles (1910) by Joseph Conrad (Paperback, 118 pages)

+20 task (Melville House: http://www.mhpbooks.com/books/freya-o... )
+05 Combo (#20.1 b. 1857 d. 1924)
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1864-1938)

Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35


Grand Total: 235 + 35 = 270

Task 10.10Group Reads

Amongst Women (1990) by John McGahern
Man Booker Prize Nominee for Shortlist (1990)

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.1 b. 1934 d. 2006)

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 220 + 15 = 235

Task 20.3 - Venice:
Read a book where 90% of it is set in Italy

The Detour (2012) by Andromeda Romano-Lax

Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 200 + 20 = 220

And, possibly, 20.5 as a combo. The novel is told first-person by a young German soldier who spent two weeks during 1938 in Northern Italy. It is definitely the case that “the narrator is an ethnic/racial minority in the country in which the book is set “ Most of the other characters are Italian. It’s a judgement call so I’ll leave it up to the moderators if the combo works or not. (if yes, then the total is +5!)