Jane from B.C.’s Comments (group member since Aug 08, 2010)

Jane from B.C.’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Here is my proposed "Land & Sea" itinerary.


Portugal
Spain
UK
France
Belgium
Netherlands
Germany
Austria
Italy
Greece

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "The Europe trip needs to be read in order within itself to score the extra points, but yes, you can intersperse the 10 and 20 point tasks in while you're doing that. Note, also, that the 10 and 20 ..."

Thanks Elizabeth. Now I need to plan my itinerary!

Do the "Backpacking through Europe" tasks need to be done consecutively or may we intersperse reading books from task sets 10 and 20 as we were allowed to do with "reading through time" in the current challenge?
(Sorry if this question is answered somewhere and I am just missing it.)

Thanks!

Task 20.7 Unification season True Grit by Charles Portis (published 1968)

(I am not sure if this is classified as YA lit, but it does have a Lexile score of 800)

Task points: 20

TOTAL POINTS: 210

Task 10.10 Group Read
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Task points = 10



TOTAL POINTS = 200

Jane from BC wrote: "10.1 Football Season - word 'tiger' in the book title
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant

+10 task
+5 Combo - fits Task 20.8 as it is a..."

Hi Krista,

I found the book fascinating. It has several genres all rolled into one that appeal to me - animals & ecosystems; history; and man vs. nature/survival tales. The book is very well researched and I enjoyed the authour's narrative non-fiction writing style.

It is not simply the true tale of a man-eating tiger, but the story of the people, history, and ecology of this remote region of Siberia. The complexities of animal conservation vs. the subsistence livelihood of the people in this isolated area for whom tiger poaching is a windfall (with China along the border eager for tiger parts) are covered extensively. The book is populated with a variety of trappers, poachers, loggers and conservations who play a role in the tale. Vaillant aptly describes these various men (yes it is a man's world out is the far eastern tiaga of Siberia.) (I did find myself getting some of the Russian names muddled.)

There are a couple of spots where Vaillant drags things out a bit, but for me it didn't detract from the book. I highly recommend it.
Jane

10.1 Football Season - word 'tiger' in the book title
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant

+10 task
+5 Combo - fits Task 20.8 as it is a work of non-fiction

Task total: 15

Grand TOTAL: 190

This is an excellent read!

10.4 One Hit Wonders My Name is Mary Sutter is the only book by Robin Oliveira

+ 10 task points
+5 Combo (20.5 Freedom Season - the book is set during the Civil War)

+15 total points for this task

GRAND TOTAL = 175

Task 10.3 Fall Birthdays
One Day by David Nicholls birthday Nov 30, 1966
+10 task points

GRAND TOTAL = 160

15.4 1851-1800 Sense and Sensibilityby Jane Austen (1811)

4th stop as a Constant Traveller


+15 Task points
+10 bonus

Task total = 25
Grand total = 150

Task 10.8 - Moon depicted on the cover of the book: . "The Capture" by Kathryn Lasky. (The moon is behind the owl's ear tuft in the upper right corner of the book.)

+10 Task points
+5 Series (Book 1 in the "Guardian of Ga'hoole" series) Lexile score 730

Task total = 15
TOTAL = 125

Third stop as a RtT Constant Reader
15.3 1900-1851 Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (1872)



+15 Task points
+10 bonus

Task Total 25

Grand Total = 110

Task 10.2 Literature Map - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
(I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett in August and Suzanne Collins was on the map : http://www.literature-map.com/kathryn... )

+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.3, B-Day 11/21)
+5 Series (Hunger Games #3)

No Lexile score for this YA book, but 1st book in the series scored: 810

Task Total: 20
Grand Total = 85

Task 20.5 Freedom Season: The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom


+20 Task (set in and around the ‘big house’ of a Virginia tobacco plantation in the late 1700s/early 1800s)
+5 Combo (10.4 One hit wonder - only book by this author)


Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 65

Liz wrote: "I just finished a book by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm wondering if he 'counts' as Japanese or British for the purposes of this task. Help?"

Hi Liz, I am planning on reading a Kazuo Ishiguro book too, but I assumed that he is British as it states on Wikipedia that he became a British citizen in 1982. All his books were published from '82 on. But I can see this is going to be complicated. So I await a ruling from a higher authority.
:o)

RtT Task - stop two as a Constant Traveller

15.2 (1950-1901) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (publ.1924)

+15 Task
+10 Style bonus
Total = 25 points

RtT TOTAL = 40 points

RtT Tasks, Traveler Type = Constant

Task 15.1 (1951-2000)To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (published 1960)

+15 Task
Task Total = 15

TOTAL POINTS = 15

Thank you, Elizabeth! This is a great resource.

Here are a couple of other options for books set in the Southern US. Neither book is set during the Civil War but one is set before (1790-1810) the Civil War while the other takes place during the Jim Crow era.

Mudbound set in Mississippi post WW II on a cotton farm so you could also get point for 20.4/Harvest season. I just finished it and it is well written and I found it compelling. The story unfold from the perspective of six different characters.

I have not read The Kitchen House but it is sitting here in my ever-growing pile of 'to-read' books. It is set before the Civil war on a tobacco plantation. So possibly points for 20.4/Harvest Season also.

As far as I can tell these are both debut novels by these authours.

How about The Cider House Rules? - partially set in an apple orchard and apples are a fall fruit.