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from the Reading with Style group.
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Task 10.3 - The plus: Read a book with a two-word title that begins with "The". The Bachelors (1960) by Muriel Spark (Paperback, 192 pages)
Review: The novel is told largely by dialog. The reader gets the impression of overhearing various characters talk with each other about the events of the novel. At first, it is not clear how various characters relate to each other; but if the reader perseveres in reading, it is very clear. I am really impressed at how well the story is told by dialog, with only a minimum amount of inner musings. The characters in the novel are a group of unmarried men and women living in London in the 1950s. There is a court case (resolved at the end), there is romance, there is menace, there is the usual anti-Catholic and anti-Irish biases of English writers. Additionally, while exploring various aspects of unmarried “bachelor” life, the underlying assumption is that married people, especially married men, are better people than unmarried people. Recommended for those who like literary fiction. Also recommended to be read at times when you can read the entire 192 page novel in one or two days (otherwise the interconnections between the characters might get confusing).
+10 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
+05 Style:4. Oldies (5 to 25 points): -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1937-1987)
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 570 + 25 = 595
Task 15.5 - 20th Century—Chronologician1974 The War Between the Tates (1974) by Alison Lurie
Task=15
Bonus=10
Task total=25
Grand Total: 545 + 25 = 570
Task 10.6 Murder not mysteryThis book was shelved as "murder" 21 times (as of today), but is not located in the Mystery section at BPL
Sharp Objects (2006) by Gillian Flynn
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2007)
The Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (2007)
Barry Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2007)
Review: This novel is usually filed under mystery but I would file it under non-supernatural horror. The premise of the story: a 30ish woman, a reporter for a Chicago suburban newspaper, is assigned to cover the murders of 2 tween-aged girls in her small Missouri hometown (pop. 2120 – not sure if that total was before or after the murders.) You're not going to find anything pleasant in this story. Our first-person narrator heroine has some emotional issues, and has spent time in an asylum. Nobody in the novel likes each other (especially mothers who don’t like their tween-aged daughters), and, in a possibly related matter, nobody in the novel is happy with their lives. The first 2/3rds of the novel was creepy and well-written. The last 1/3rd was gruesome and the reason I would label it as non-supernatural horror (not mystery).
I can see why it won several awards for “Best novel”. It is written in a very engaging, easy to understand, style. That said -- it’s not really the kind of book I like to read, and I would not have started it if I knew what the last 1/3rd of the novel was like. Recommended for fans of emotionally gruesome novels, or fans of non-supernatural horror novels.
+ 10 points (20.3)
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (20.5)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 520 + 25 = 545
Task 20.5 - In honor of Emma, read a book written by a woman with a single female narrator/main character.Regenesis (1995) by Julia Ecklar
Review: This is a novel comprised of four stories first published in the science fiction magazine ANALOG. The page behind the title pages states that the stories have been revised for this book (presumably to make the stories connect with each other more than was the case originally). The author won the 1991 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Julia Ecklar has published this book under her name alone; and she is listed as a collaborator on Star Trek novelizations with 2 other authors.
The premise of this set of stories is this: a curmudgeonly woman, who likes animals better than people, is a field agent for a large, private corporation called Noah’s Ark. The mission for Noah's Ark: to rescue Terran animals from extinction caused by artificial means; to allow Terran animals to become extinct from natural causes; and to prevent Terran animals from exploitation on the “black market”. In three of the stories, she has a dog and/or a young apprentice to react to; those stories work well. ("Blood Relations" (June 1992), "Tide of Stars" (January 1995), and "The Human Animal" (April 1995).) ”Ice Nights" (October 1992)" had potential but needed more work. Each of the four stories uses a basic principle from biology as its background starting point.
Overall, recommended for fans of science fiction.
+ 20 points (20.3)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 490 + 30 = 520
Task 20.3 -. In honor of Pride & PrejudiceRead a book that has more than 100,000 ratings and an average rating over 3.99.
A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) (2005) by George R.R. Martin (Mass Market Paperback, 1061 pages)
Review:This is the fourth book of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series (colloquially.known as “Game of Thrones” series). It is NOT a stand-alone novel; the reader should only attempt reading this novel after reading the first three books of the series (or viewing HBO’s TV series from the first three seasons).
The first three books of the series A Song of Ice and Fire were written and published 1996 – 2000. Fans waited 5 years for A Feast for Crows. George Martin knew they were waiting; he had fame and fortune and reams of unsolicited advice while he was writing A Feast for Crows. It shows. The editors stopped editing him – there’s a bloated feeling to the prose in this novel that was not present in the first three books of the series. Alot of fans had criticisms about books #1-3. Martin responded to the criticism: the few women in books #1-3 are all either victims or stupid (even Daenerys in book #1 is a victim!) In A Feast for Crows, there are a lot more women, and some of the women are just as strong and heroic as the guys. Martin responded to the criticism: what are the common people doing whilst the knights are fighting? In this volume of the series, Martin tells us. (Mostly they are trying to stay alive in a very unsafe world.) A Feast for Crows ends with a big TO BE CONTINUED.
Overall, if you read the first 3 books in the series, and want to know what happens next, I’d recommend reading this one.
+ 20 points (20.3)
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (10.6 "murder")
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
+25 Style: 5. Jumbo (5 to 25 points): -1000+ Pages: 25 Points
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 + 25 = 60
Grand Total: 430 + 60 = 490
Task 20.5 - In honor of Emma, read a book written by a woman with a single female narrator/main character.The Drowning Girl (2012) by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Paperback, 336 pages)
Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in a Novel (2012)
Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (2012)
James Tiptree Jr. Award (2012)
Review: Anachronous narratives are novels that have plots in which events are recounted in an order different from their chronological sequence. Most of the time, when I read an anachronous narrative novel, I get frustrated and confused and toss the novel. Not this time. Caitlín R. Kiernan successfully uses that technique to tell her story. The story is told in first person by a young woman who tells the reader on page 3 that “I was also insane”. I think it is Metafiction (defined: A novel where the narrator intentionally exposes him or herself as the author of the story). Here’s a typical sentence, occurring between descriptions of events and emotions:
p. 170: “Perhaps I should rip up these last few pages. Maybe I have no idea what I’m trying to say. Or I should have spent many more days working out each and every sentence on counteless scraps of paper, not daring to fit them together until every word has been unerringly selected.”
Is the novel fantasy (ghosts and mermaids and werewolves)? Or is it the fantastical ravings of a self-described insane woman? The reader is left to decide. The ending is a bit of a mush, so whichever kind of ending the reader prefers can be justified by the ending. (I had it at 4 *s until the “ending”, and marked it down to 3*s because of the incoherent ending.) Recommended for readers who like unconventional “novels”.
+ 20 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points ) (10.4 born in Dublin, Ireland)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 395 + 35 = 430
as of today, April 20, 11/22/63 by Stephen King fits -- has 5 shelving as "murder" and no BPL listing as "mystery"Here are some new ones that fit has 5 shelving as "murder" and no BPL listing as "mystery"
Phantom Evil by Heather Graham
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Over at Seasonal Regional Challenge, in 2011 they had (task #15.8):http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...
Read a book that has appeared on any Indie Next List at http://www.indiebound.org/indie-next-...
Please indicate the list your book appeared on when you post.
I love that list! I now check it every month and have found many good reads. Maybe we can support Indie booksellers and have a task that says: pick a book from one of the Indie lists.
Task 10.5 Read a book by a winner of the Jerusalem PrizeMurakami won the Jerusalem Prize in 2009
A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) by Haruki Murakami (translated by Alfred Birnbaum)
Review: I’ve read other books by Murakami. I especially liked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. This novel, however, was a yawner. Murakami introduces the main character at the beginning of the novel, and acquaints the reader with his situation in life. (Our hero is an advertising freelancer who likes to smoke tobacco cigarettes and drink alcohol, especially whiskey.) The rest of the novel reads like this typical paragraph:
p. 304: “Three uneventful days passed. Not one thing happened. The Sheep Man didn’t show. I fixed meals, ate them, read my book, and when the sun went down, I drank whiskey and went to sleep. The morning air of the pasture turned steadily cooler. Day by day, the bright golden leaves of the birches turned more spotted as the first winds of winter slipped between the withered branches and across the highlands toward the southeast.”
Pages and pages and pages of prose like the above. Our main character has conversations with other people. A lot of the conversations involve travel arrangements, and such arrangements are described in detail.
Oh, and there’s the sheep. There are info dumps on the care and feeding of sheep in Japan, both before and after World War II. And our hero is interested in sheep. His disappeared friend “Rat” is also interested in sheep. Everybody in the novel is interested in sheep. The reasons for the sheep interest is somewhat murky.
I would almost give up on the novel, and then I’d read a sentence like this: p. 308: “Something was about to happen.” I'd think: Yes! Something is going to happen! And I would persevere, hoping to find an explanation for the travel arrangements and scenery descriptions. Alas! (Mild) (view spoiler),
Maybe I’m missing the symbolism, or, maybe the translation is wanting. I wouldn’t give up on Murakami, though, since his later books were entertaining, eventful and offbeat/surreal.
Recommended: for fans of “Waiting for Godot”; or, when you’re looking for a book to help you go to sleep!
+10 Task
+10 Style:2. Non-Western (10 points): (Murakami is from Japan)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
+05 Style:4. Oldies (5 to 25 points): -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1937-1987)
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 +05 = 35
Grand Total: 360 + 35 = 395
Task 20.5 - In honor of Emma, read a book written by a woman with a single female narrator/main character.Bellfield Hall (Dido Kent #1) (2008) by Anna Dean
Review:This is the first book in a historical mystery series. Dido Kent is an unmarried woman in her late 20’s. The setting is southern England. The date is given as 1805. Dido has been invited to a house party. The hosts are the parents of her niece’s prospective fiancé. On page 2, the body of an anonymous, well-dressed woman is found in the shrubbery. Our heroine informally investigates the woman’s death and investigates the solution to the other mysteries present at the manor house. The author tries for a “Miss Marple in a Jane Austen world” story. She succeeds with the “Miss Marple” part – our resolute heroine Miss Dido Kent talks to all humans, maids, young aristocratic men, stablehands, seemingly unaware of class or gender differences. They are more than willing to reveal their innermost secrets to the inquisitive 28 year old unmarried woman that they have just met. To enjoy this story, the reader must suspend disbelief and accept that the British in this story just love to tell Miss Kent everything she wants to know. The mystery is interesting in a jigsaw-puzzle way, and the author plays fair with the clues. Recommended for fans of cozy mysteries.
+ 20 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 330 + 30 = 360
Task 10.1Square PegLord of Snow and Shadows (Tears of Artamon #1) (2003) by Sarah Ash (Paperback, 574 pages)
Review:This was the first book of a fantasy trilogy. The setting is very familiar to fantasy fans – small contiguous countries ruled by kings and queens and in conflict with each other. The twist here is that the characters each have a different understanding of how their world works. Some characters do not believe in magic or dragons; other characters believe in magic but not dragons; other characters believe in dragons but not magic; and different sets of characters who believe in magic each have differing understandings of just HOW magic actually works. Characters who understand the way the world *really* works have the upper hand in accomplishing their goals. The novel ends at a natural stopping point in the action. There is also a huge TO BE CONTINUED expectation at the end of this first book of a trilogy. Recommended for fans of “epic fantasy”.
+10 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
+05 Style:5. Jumbo (5 to 25 points): -500 Pages: 5 Points
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 305 + 25 = 330
Task 15.4 - 20th Century—Chronologician1975 Enchanted Pilgrimage by Clifford D. Simak
Task=15
Bonus=10
Task total=25
Grand Total: 280 + 25 = 305
Task 20.6 - In honor of Northanger Abbey, read a parody or a book by one of these satirists. Christopher Buckley b. 1952No Way to Treat a First Lady (2002) by Christopher Buckley
Review:This is a humorous novel poking fun at the media excesses and the celebrity culture of the 1990s. The OJ Simpson trial and the Clinton impeachment hearings are clear inspirations to the events of this novel. The majority of the book is consumed by what is referred to as “The Trial of the Millennium". The crime? The first lady is accused of murdering her philandering husband. She is defended by an immoral, win-at-any-costs attorney. Buckley drops the names of real-life 1990s media personnel (including the late Peter Jennings), and includes characters loosely based on real-life 1990s media personnel (cranky bow-tie wearing “pixel pundit”? my guess is George Will). Overall, No Way to Treat a First Lady is an enjoyable, lightweight novel. Recommended.
+ 20 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 250 + 30 = 280
Task 15.3 - 20th Century—Chronologician1976 A World Out of Time (The State #1) by Larry Niven
Task=15
Bonus=10
Task total=25
Grand Total: 225 + 25 = 250
Task 10.2 - March 21 is Memory Day - Read a memoir/autobiography.Red Dust Road. Jackie Kay (2010) by Jackie Kay
Review: Kay is a black, gay, athiest, adopted woman who made the decision (in adulthood) to trace her white Scottish mother and black Nigerian father. Her birth parents are not what she had expected: her mother has had a “troubled” life; her father is an evangelical preacher (who constantly tries to “save” Kay). Kay’s adoptive parents had provided a warm, stable and loving home for Kay and her (adopted) brother. The result is that Kay is able to emotionally handle her encounters with her birth parents, and to handle the answers to her questions (which can be summed up as: why?). Recommended.
+10 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (20.5 female writer, single female narrator)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 200 + 25 = 225
Task 15.2 - 20th Century—Chronologician1977 Inherit the Stars (Giants #1) by James P. Hogan
Task=15
Bonus=10
Task total=25
Grand Total: 175 + 25 = 200
Task 10.2 - March 21 is Memory Day - Read a memoir/autobiography.Found (2011) by Jennifer Lauck
Review:This is Jennifer Lauck's fourth memoir about her difficult childhood, but the only one of her memoirs that I have read. The first 2/3rds of the book revisits events described in earlier memoirs – her unsettled childhood (made unsettled by the unexpected deaths of her adoptive parents, and the reluctance of her adoptive parents' siblings to accept her as a full member of their family), her failed romances, her marriage & divorce, and her religious faith (Tibetan Buddhism). She adds occasional passages about her birth parents during the first 2/3rds. The last 1/3rd focuses on her reunion with her birth mother, and her contacts with her DNA relatives (siblings, cousins, etc.). Ms. Lauck apparently believes that babies need their birth moms, DNA rules, adoptive mothers are just not as good. In this memoir she blames her unsettled childhood on her separation from her birth mother rather than on the loss of her adoptive parents as a young child. Overall, this memoir reads quickly and communicates well the author’s point of view. Most of this memoir repeats her earlier memoirs, so, I’d just pick one of her memoirs to read, and since this is her latest (and thus most up-to-date) memoir, this is the one I'd choose.
+10 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (20.5 female writer, single female narrator)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 150 + 25 = 175
Task 10.4 - March is Irish American Month – Read a book by an author who was born in IrelandAnne Enright was born in Dublin, Ireland
The Forgotten Waltz: A Novel (2011) by Anne Enright
2012 Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction
Review:This novel is the story of an affair, told in detail by our first-person narrator, Gina. The prose used by the author draws you into the story. Our narrator, on the other hand, pushes you away from the story. She’s very unlikeable, to the point where one feels sorry for the people she interacts with (her parents, 10 year old girls, the men in her life, her sister, etc.). It was interesting to read about the backdrop to the story – Ireland, 2006-2010. The characters, both the main and the supporting ones, are benefiting from the booming Irish economy at the start of the novel, and suffering from the collapsed economy at the end of the novel. I suspect this is meant to mirror unlikeable Gina’s relationships.
Recommended for those who wish to read all Orange Prize Nominees, and for those who appreciate style and can tolerate unlikeable narrators.
+10 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (20.5 female writer, single female narrator)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 125 + 25 = 150
From post #109:Karen Lord qualifies for:
+10 Style:2. Non-Western (10 points):
Grand Total: 95 + 10 = 105
Task 10.10 - Group reads
HHhH: A Novel (2010) by Laurent Binet (translated by Sam Taylor)
Review:First, the title: HHhH: “Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich”, or “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich”. This novel is written in the style of Metafiction (a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion). I don’t normally read Metafiction, so it took a few pages for me to get into the flow of the “novel”. Once I did, the novel read very quickly, and the “story” was easy to follow. The motivating event of the novel is the historical (it actually happened) 1942 assassination of a high-ranking Nazi official, Reinhard Heydrich. The author covers Heydrich’s Nazi activities, the activities of his assassins, and the real world fallout from his assassination. (see: Lidice, Czech Republic) I like reading novels that can be categorized as “something completely different”, and so I liked reading this novel. Recommended for when you are looking for something offbeat.
+10 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 105 + 20 = 125
