Reading with Style discussion
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Fall 2012 Rws Completed Tasks - Fall 2012
20.4 Carmilla
by Nadine GordimerThe main characters in this book are gay.
Task +20
Style: +15 Review, 20.8 veteran (first book published 1949, most current on on Goodreads 2007)
Review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Total: 35
Grand Total: 185
Know your ABC's - Round 215.4 - 4th book - letter P (2004)
Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 505
Know your ABC's - Round 215.5 - 5th book - letter Q (1991)
Scandal by Amanda Quick
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 525
ABCs15.5 Book 5 F: Fossum, Karin 1997
He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum
+20 Points
Grand Total: 1145
20.7- Connie's TaskThe Awakening by Kate Chopin
+20 task (Feminist author)
+10 oldies (Published 1899)
+5 multiple (2nd book for this task)
Task Total: 35 points
Grand total 240
10.2 - Celebrate OktoberfestMr. Phillips by John Lanchester
+10 Task (Lanchester born in Germany)
+10 Review
Task total=20
Grand total=665
The plot of this novel involves a London accountant who loses his job one Friday and can't face telling his wife and two sons. On Monday he gets up and dresses and leaves home as usual so his wife won't suspect anything. He spends the day going around London observing people, ruminating on things in general, and getting involved in a few adventures. Being an accountant, he is very interested in numbers and statistics, and much of his thought process involves calculating all kinds of statistical odds. He also tends toward having Walter Mitty-like fantasies. The tone of the book is humorous all the way through, no matter what situation he is involved in. There are quite a few jokes, and most of the statistics he comes up with are interesting. A couple of things I didn't like was the amount of time spent on his sexual fantasies and on his calculating of various odds relating to sexual matters; also he makes a visit to a porn shop/movie theater, but that turned out to be quite humorous. Lanchester's writing is good, but I didn't like this book nearly as much as I liked his new novel, Capital. Overall I don't regret reading this book. I do plan to borrow a copy of his first novel, The Debt to Pleasure, which won the 1996 Whitbread Book Award.
Task 15.5 Know Your ABC'sletter F/5th book: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
+20 task
Previous Total= 135 pts
Grand Total = 155 pts
Task 10.7 MonsterfestKept by Shawntelle Madison
scary characters are werewolves
+10 task
+5 combo w/ Oktoberfest (author was born in USA)
+10 review
Task Total= 25 pts
Previous Total=155pts
Grand Total = 180 pts
Review: When I accepted this book as a review copy, I didn’t realize it was the second in a series. I’m glad that I didn’t know that because I might not have accepted it otherwise and I would have missed a fun read.
With urban fantasy being such a hot genre right now, I’ve read countless novels with vampires and werewolves. This is the first one that I’ve read where the main character/werewolf suffers from anxiety and OCD. I loved how Shawntelle used humor to humanize her werewolf heroine, Natalya, through her OCD. Kept has some of the most memorable characters that I’ve read about in long time, like a mermaid who was afraid of the water, a succubus with relationship problems and a dwarf with low self-esteem due being tall.
I love that there is probably a huge demographic of readers out there with anxiety issues that will actually be able to see themselves in the main character of this book, (well aside from the whole werewolf aspect). There was so much that I liked about this book. As a paranormal romance/ urban fantasy, it was refreshing. Natalya was a bit whiny at times but I liked how she would whine but then face her fear to accomplish whatever needed to be done.
If you are a fan of urban fantasy, I definitely think this series is worth a try.
In post 36 I claimed Shadow's Edge for task 10.2 (US). I'd like to move this book to task 10.9 instead (it's the second part in the series and I had read the first part before). The points should stay the same.
10.2 Oktoberfest - USBound for Eternity by Sarah Wisseman
Review:
Bound for Eternity by Sarah Wisseman and narrated by Priscilla Holbrook, published by Iambik in 2012 is one of the shorter audiobooks I have listened to in the recent past with only 6 ½ hours.
It is part of a series of mystery novels whose protagonist is Lisa Donahue. In Bound for Eternity Lisa is curator at a museum for historical/archaeological artefacts. Normal work routine is interrupted when one of the museum employee’s is found dead in the building. As things progress it becomes more and more obvious that one of the other employee’s must be the murderer. While trying to plan the next exhibit Lisa notices that some artefacts are not where they are supposed to be and even begins to suspect that some of the items might be forgeries. Are both incidents connected?
When I first began to listen to the audiobook I wasn’t too thrilled by the narrator’s performance. She seemed to read without much fervour and intonation. However, I soon discovered that the narrator’s way of reading the book suited me surprisingly well. I never had any problems in staying with the story and had a vivid picture of it in front of my mental eye. The only thing that was a bit annoying was the fact that sometimes the volume changed a bit. It was no big leap, just a small change that I noticed because it often happened within a sentence. It was not so dramatic that I needed to adjust my player’s volume level, so it’s actually no great deal, but it does take the attention away from the story for a moment.
Usually I’m a bit dubious about books by new author’s I’ve never read before, especially when I didn’t “choose” the book myself but got it for free, in this case as a review copy. So I was favorably surprised when I soon began to really like the story. The solution of the mystery is not too obvious. It’s obvious that the author has experience in archeology and the way a museum works and while this often leads to too much detail and boring explanations, it is woven into the story without disturbing it but giving it a believable and vivid background. The characters were round and I liked the protagonist and her love interest.
All in all I can really recommend this audiobook for mystery friends and everyone who has some interest in archeology. I’ll certainly read Sarah Wisseman’s other books featuring Lisa Donahue and would really enjoy to have those as audiobook as well (as far as I can see only Bound for Eternity is available as audiobook at present).
+ 10 Task
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1070
Deedee wrote: "Task 10.6 a nonfiction book about an elected officialHarry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (2009) by Matthew Algeo
+10 Task
+10 Style:3. Review (10 po..."
+5 Multiple
Christin wrote: "10.8B Lucky SevensThe Angry Angel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
This, intended, trilogy by Yarbro is set around creating a backstory for each of the three brides in Dracula. The premise alone of makin..."
Sorry, Christin, no multiple bonus on 10.8.
15.8 - 8th book - Letter HDragonsbane by Barbara Hambly (pub. 1985) - Know your ABCs
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1140
Kate S wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Task 15.7 - 7th book - letter U(1999)Losing Nelson (1999) by Barry Unsworth
+30 Task
Task Total: 30
My total is different from the Readerboard Total. My records show: 890, rea..."
Yep, that's it, so the total as of post 774 is 910.
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (2009) by Matthew Algeo
post #794 = 20 points
post #827 = 05 points
total 25 points
910 + 25 = 935
20.8 - Veteran AuthorsThe History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson
(London: A Poem In Imitation Of The Third Satire Of Juvenal pub 1738 and The Lives of the Poets: Boxed Set pub 1781)
+20 task
+5 multiple
+5 combo (10.8 - 7 word title)
+20 oldies
Task Total: 50 points
Grand Total: 530 points
10.8(A) Lucky SevensThe Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
Review:
A very dark non-fiction account of the lives of different women interviewed in China in the 1990s by journalist Xinran, who was presenting a radio programme about the experience of Chinese women at the time. Later she came to the West and wrote the book.
There are some terrible life stories here, the kind of lives where you can imagine people wishing they had never been born. Multiple rapes, years of political imprisonment on starvation rations, insanity, loss, terror ... it's all here. At the end of a chapter describing the almost unimaginable poverty and isolation in the dustbowl of the north-western Chinese desert, where the women had no medical treatment and nothing but flour to eat (except after giving birth to a son when they were allowed one egg), Xinran mentions (almost as a throwaway comment) that these were the only women she interviewed who said that they were happy - probably because they had no idea that a different life was possible.
It's very well written but don't pick this up if you're looking for some light reading...
+10 Task (7-word title/subtitle)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 points
Grand Total: 1040
10.4 Fall ColorsFreaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates
Lexile 810
Review:
A dark story of a teenage girl whose father is a sports hero to the public but physically abusive at home. When her bruised mother tries to establish some kind of life of her own, Franky sides with her father out of fear and blames her mother for "provoking him". But worse things are coming...
I thought this was probably a very realistic portrayal of what goes on in abusive families. Franky could be criticised for not being more of a hero earlier but the truth is that a lot of kids do grow up idolising a violent parent and blaming the victim for the problems in the marriage. Franky is shown just as she begins to acknowledge the truth, although we never see exactly what she is thinking or feeling.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (20.7 feminist author, 20.8 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/j...)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30 points
Grand Total: 1070
20.1 FrankensteinIn the Woods by Tana French Won Edgar Allen Poe Best First Novel Award in 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
Review
Ireland has long proven it is a nation of story tellers and the next generation is just as talented with the likes of Tana French. This book contains many twists, turns and no punch held back from a first person narrative of a homicide detective in Dublin. The character development of both the protagonist and his partner deliciously unfolds along with the story line and the murder mystery itself. I look forward to reading the next book in the series as I’ve come to care about the characters and want to know “what happens next?”. I highly recommend this book not only in the mystery genre but also of an old fashioned engrossing novel.
+20 pts - Task
+5 pts - Combo (10.8 pub in 2007)
+10 pts - Review
Task Total - 35 pts
Grand Total -
20.8 - Veteran's Day (Repeat)The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
+20 Task (Horowitz has been publishing books since 1979)
+ 5 Multiple
+10 Review
Task total=35
Grand total=700
This is the first Sherlock Holmes copycat novel endorsed by Arthur Conan Doyle's estate. The book is an OK Victorian mystery, when judged on its own merits. It reads easily, is easy to follow, and has several plot twists. There are plenty of the obligatory foggy nights and references to gaslight. But compared to the real Sherlock Holmes stories - well, there is no comparison. The prose is really dumbed-down from Doyle's style. It never feels like it is the real Holmes and the real Watson. And there are some things going on that Doyle could never have written about during his era. Anyone thinking of recommending it to teenagers probably should read it first. It was OK but I doubt I would read any follow-ups. It just made me want to re-read the original Holmes canon again.
Task 20.5 Read a book with a realistic scientisthttp://www.lablit.com/article/677#cro...
Also fits Task 20.8 "veteran" author, one that has published books for 20 or more years.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?109
Timescape (1980) by Gregory Benford
Nebula Award for Best Novel (1980), Locus Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (1981), British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel (1980), John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1981)
+20 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points): (20.8 “veteran” author)
+05 Style:4. Oldies (5 to 25 points): -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1937-1987)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points):
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 05 + 10 = 40
Grand Total: 935 + 40 = 975
Review: This award-winning science fiction novel was first published in 1980. It is set in the “future” of 1998 (a “future” without cell phones, internet or cable TV; maybe we can just say an “alternate world” future); and also in the past of 1962/3. The Earth is on the brink of ecological disaster. A British physicist, working in 1998 Oxford, England, is doing research on sub-atomic particles and is on the verge of understanding “tachyons” (particles that move faster-than-light). The “tachyons” can be used by 1998 scientists to communicate with scientists in a Southern Californian physics lab in 1963. The way of communication: to use tachyons to “interfere” with the experiment that the 1963 Southern Californian lab is doing. (A new explanation for why lab results are so off: it wasn’t human error, it was interference from future scientists! LOL) The novel establishes the premise quickly. The optimistic scientists (from 1963 and from 1998) act with great determination to Save The World. I liked it. Recommended for fans of science fiction.
Task 20.8 - Veteran's DayOn Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
+20 task
+10 combo (10.3 - Garfunkel, 10.8 - Published in 2007)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 30
10.8 Lucky 7The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad pub. 1907
Review
This is my first Joseph Conrad novel. I found it a little difficult to follow at the beginning but once I got all the players set in my mind and who was on which side of “the game”, then the story flowed more easily for me. It is interesting at that time was beginning seed of what would later become known as The Cold War. Parallel to the story of political intrigue is the story of a marriage and a family. How what had once seemed like an ideal situation for all concerned, but which later proves to have been a poignant sacrifice on the part of the wife, implodes with the event of a literal explosion. There is a bit of pathos but overall the story fits well in the time period for which it is written.
+10 pts - task
+10 pts combo (10.10 group read, 20.8 vet author 1896-1925 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C...)
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Oldies
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total -
Task 20.7 - Feminist AuthorPersuasion - Jane Austen
This is the second Jane Austen novel I've read now, and I still haven't fully decided if I enjoy her writing. I found the plot to be very similar to the other novel I've read by her (Pride and Prejudice) but despite what I'd normally consider too many similarities, I did enjoy it. Some of the characters are rather annoying, but it's intentional so I suppose that says a lot about the writing itself, since Austen did manage to make me want to slap some sense into a few of her characters throughout the book. The love story in particular is very similar to the one in Pride and Prejudice, but overall it's enjoyable. It's one of those books where you know that the characters will end up together, but you still feel all warm and fuzzy when it actually happens. It's a winding road to get there, but for the most part the trip is an enjoyable one.
+20 task
+5 combo (10.3 - Garfunkel)
+15 oldies (published in 1817)
+10 review
Task total: 50
Grand total: 80
20.7 Women of Achievement MonthSong of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy
Review: Song of Scarabaeus is a science fiction book with a hint of romance, which is my preference for sci-fi. Edie terraforms planets with her mind in some sort of hybrid of biology, technology, and maybe geology? I never really understood the science of it, although I don't really mind - I've never been one for 'hard' science fiction. Edie gets kidnapped from a job she doesn't much like and didn't get to choose and falls in with some morally suspect people, except the man she seems to be falling in love with. In fact, it seems as though the world Creasy has created has few ethical people in it. I'm hoping more details of the world and all its complicated societal structures will be further explored in the sequel - I felt like at the end of this one I'd just begun to get a grasp of some of it, but was left wanting more.
+20 Task (passes Bechtel Test - among other things, Edie talks to Cat about her kidnapping and their jobs)
+5 Multiple
+5 Combo (10.7 Monsterfest - weird killer animate plant-creatures that take over human bodies, and other killer alien life forms)
+10 Review
Task Total: 40
-5 points post 555 (book not published in 21st century)
Grand Total: 1175
15.10 Know Your ABCs Tenth Book Letter TThe Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama (2007)
+45 task
+75 Graduate bonus A
Grand Total: 600
RwS Task20.10 - Liz M’s Task – World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th:
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories by Virginia Woolf
I got interested in Virginia Woolf in a round about way. It was Michael Cunningham's masterful book, The Hours, that convinced me to try reading her work again. It takes me awhile to get back into her style every time I pick up one of her books and this short story collection was no exception. I started really enjoying the stories with "A Mark on the Wall" and then I got to "The New Dress" and found that the upcoming event requiring the dress was one of Mrs. Dalloway's parties and from then on I was thoroughly absorbed in the stories. In fact, two more stories took place at a party thrown by Clarissa Dalloway. I'd recommend this collection as a great entry point for anyone that would like to read Virginia Woolf and also as an alternative to her longer works for her fans!
+20 Task: Virginia Woolf committed suicide
+15 Combo: Combo: 20.3 Poe/ 20.4 Carmilla / 20.8 Veteran’s Day (1915 – 1941)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies 1944
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 1215
20.9 Author BiographyProust in Love by William C. Carter
I read this as one of some preliminary reads in preparation for a year-long group read of In Search of Lost Time. Carter has a longer biography, Marcel Proust: A Life, with a New Preface by the Author, which I chose not to find time to read before January.
For me, it was absolutely perfect preparation. There are extensive quotes of both Proust and those who have written about Proust. The quotes of Proust include his letters as well as the novel. At first I was hesitant about the novel's quotes because, of course, discussion of them become spoilers.
In this case, I don't think it will matter much. With such a long novel involving so many characters, and that I won't even start reading it for another 6 weeks, it's unlikely I'll remember any specifics anyway. But I also chose to be thankful for them because Proust in Love has helped enormously toward my appreciation of a 4200+ page novel.
Carter ends with a discussion of why In Search of Lost Time continues to find followers even 100 years after Swann's Way first found print. It leaves the reader feeling joy about life. I can't wait!
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.8B, 20.4)
+ 5 Multiple
+10 Review
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 595
20.9 National Author's DayPapa, an Intimate Biography of Mark Twain by Susy Clemens, Charles Neider(editor)
Review
This biography written by Susy Clemens about her father begun at the age of 13, (the year her father turned 50) is another view of the great author that is seldom seen. Susy was Mark Twain’s eldest daughter and often referred to as “his favorite child”. The biography is written in a journal form sometimes giving dates, sometimes not but is anecdotal. All the misspellings are kept intact as Twain states it would desecrate her creativeness to do so. The first sentence begins “We are a happy family”. By her words and her father’s comments on them written after her death certainly indicate she did have a happy childhood. It was unusual of course, lots of travel, lots of illustrious visitors and friends, including US presidents, as well as the being raised by the great man himself and his sweet tempered wife, is envious to me. Samuel Clemens thought of his three daughters, Susy would have been the best writer, even philosopher as she credits her father of being a philosopher himself.
Charles Neider is a Twain scholar. He learned about Susy’s biography in happenstance and after writing to University of Virginia for her papers, he was joyfully surprised to see her father’s 52 pages of annotations that he wrote in addition, describing in more detail the depth of the incident being written of, his impressions of Susy’s character and his poignant feelings about his daughter and her short life. Her last entry ends abruptly, mid-sentence and Twain comments, “So ends the loving task of that innocent sweet spirit – like her own life, unfinished, broken off in the midst…..”
Aside from all that, Charles Neider includes other letters of Susy’s written as a young adult traveling with her parents in Europe to a “bosom friend”. Although he hesitates before actually saying he believes Susy may have been lesbian, the writing in the letters he includes does make a strong case for a passionate love between Susy and this lady. Even considering the times, it seems quite explicit. I’m not really sure why the author includes this aspect in his Foreword unless he felt it gave more insight to Susy as a person but I find those letters have no relation to the biography written by the thirteen year old Susy.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1985)
Task Total - 35 pts
Grand Total -
From post 337Deedee wrote: "Task 10.4 book with a color in the title
Black Dahlia & White Rose: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
+10 Task
+10 Style:1. Combo (5 points): (#20.3 short stories, #20.7 feminist author)
+10 Style:..."
+5 Combo-20.8
10.3 Garfunkel ListRabbit, Run by John Updike
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.8)
+5 Multiple
+5 Oldies (1960)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1575
20.10 World Suicide Prevention DayThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.8)
+10 Oldies (1926)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1610
10.4 - Fall colorsThe White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - India, 10.8 - B)
Task total = 20
Grand Total = 355
10.8 - Lucky SevensComment Être Une Bonne Mère Indigne by Caroline Desages
Published in 2007
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.3 - Essay)
Task total = 15
Grand Total = 370
10.2 Octoberfest (USA)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
+10 Task
+5 Combo 20.8 (published 1920-1941)
+10 Oldies (pub. 1925)
total:25
grand total: 310
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
+10 Task
+5 Combo 20.8 (published 1920-1941)
+10 Oldies (pub. 1925)
total:25
grand total: 310
15 ABC's ABC's 2nd Round15.3 La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith pub 2009
(listed as McCall Smith, Alexander in Brooklyn Library Catalog)
Task = 15
Grand Total= 1555
Leigh wrote: "10.2 Octoberfest (USA)The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
+10 Task
+5 Combo 20.8 (published 1920-1941)
+10 Oldies (pub. 1925)
total:25
grand total: 310"
Leigh, I think you can claim 10.3 as a combo point too.
From post #846+05
975 + 05 = 980
Task 20.10 a book by an author that committed suicide
Also fits Task 20.4 written by an LGBT author.: Yukio Mishima was bisexual:
http://www.glbtq.com/literature/mishi...
Also fits Task 20.8 veteran" author, one that has published books for 20 or more years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mi...
Sound of Waves (1954) by Yukio Mishima
+20 Task
+10 Style:1. Combo (5 points): (20.4 LGBT author, 20.8 "veteran" author)
+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: 20 + 10 + 10 + 05 = 45
Grand Total: 980 + 45 = 1025
Review: This short novel takes place shortly after World War II, in a small fishing village on a small Japanese island. The first two chapters had extended descriptions of fishing life, and I almost tossed it (but then I remembered my likely alternative for 20.10 was Ernest Hemingway so I gave the novel another chance LOL). I’m glad I did. I guess the first 2 chapters were to “set the scene”, and then in chapter 3 the action could begin. The story involves two teenagers: a poor but honest fishing boy, and a sweet girl from the local well-to-do family --- love at first sight and the obstacles they face to be together. Interspersed with the plot are idealized vignettes of small town Japanese fishing villages. Recommended for those interested in Japanese culture, or who wish to read a gentle love story.
Did I mess up again? The readerboard says it is current up to post #844, but my score is the score I had for post #789 which was 1045 pts. I also posted #834 and #838 which I have then that my score is 1150 pts.
Rebekah wrote: "Did I mess up again? The readerboard says it is current up to post #844, but my score is the score I had for post #789 which was 1045 pts. I also posted #834 and #838 which I have then that my scor..."We agreed on your score through Post 746 when you had 920 points. In 789 you posted a task total of 55 (but had only 50 points in the post), and posted a grand total of 1075. You're off there and in subsequent posts.
20.8 Veteran AuthorThousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
The edition I read included "A Note on the Tea Ceremony, the Backdrop for This Novel." I don't think you can miss the significance of tea in this, but I was glad of the information. I did attend a Japanese Tea Ceremony nearly 50 years ago, but my memory of it is dull. I probably wasn't paying enough attention. ;-)
In this note is ... Mr. Kawabata's characters nonetheless seem to pause at the intersection, marked for them by the permanence of the old tea vessels and the impermanence of the owners. This edition also includes brief footnotes to tell the Western reader about some of the tea vessels used and of their age - hundreds of years old - which had been passed from generation to generation.
A young man struggles with a love connection he has made that is, at best, inappropriate. It is a short novel, I won't include spoilers. But there is also this, which somehow touched me. He gazed at it for a time. In a gourd that had been handed down for three centuries, a flower that would fade in a morning. Maybe you have to read it in context, but it just struck me how fleeting is life.
+20 Task (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasunari...
+ 5 Combo (20.10)
+ 5 Multiple
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (pub 1951)
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 640
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Did I mess up again? The readerboard says it is current up to post #844, but my score is the score I had for post #789 which was 1045 pts. I also posted #834 and #838 which I have t..."Ok I see where I messed up in post #789. I gave myself 15 combo points but only accounted for two combos, 10.4 and 20.8, The third combo I forgot to mention was 10.8 as the book was published in 1897. I corrected it, so does that make it all work out?
Rebekah wrote: "Ok I see where I messed up in post #789. I gave myself 15 combo points but only accounted for two combos, 10.4 and 20.8, The third combo I forgot to mention was 10.8 as the book was published in 1897. I corrected it, so does that make it all work out? "I don't think so. Your post 746 was 920 plus 50 (or 55 if corrected) for post 789 would only be 970, but you posted 1075, or 100 points too many, and you have been adding to that.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Ok I see where I messed up in post #789. I gave myself 15 combo points but only accounted for two combos, 10.4 and 20.8, The third combo I forgot to mention was 10.8 as the book was..."So I did! Darn it! I was just thinking last time I posted a completed task that I had gone almost a whole challenge without math errors! That's what i get for patting myself on the back too soon. Usually though I cheat myself out of points so maybe I'm starting to balance? (smile)
I think I corrected everything by taking 100 pts off all subsequent posts so that I have as my most current total is 1085 pts. Am i correct now?
Sorry to be such a pain in the brain!
10.9 To be continuedCurse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
Review
This is my second round of reading about the Spellmans, having already read the first in the series, The Spellman Files. I was delighted by that book and just as pleasantly entertained by the second. Izzy Spellman, her detective family which includes her prodigy of an adolescent sister and the various characters in their lives, some more eccentric than others but none more eccentric than the family itself. It is a twist on the usual mystery because of these unique personalities that gives the story more humor than murder and horror. I’m recommending any who enjoy dry humor or are fans of Flavia de Luce.
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
Task total - 20 pts
Grand Total - 1105 pts
20.8 - Veteran AuthorHeart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
+20 task (Veteran author, published Almayer's Folly in 1895; Published The Rover in 1923)
+10 combo (10.3 - Garfunkel, 10.8A, 7 letters in Author's first name (Joseph))
+10 oldies (pub. 1899)
Task Total: 40 points
Grand total: 280
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10.9 To Be Continued - Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb
I admit to really enjoying the In Death series. Sure, the formula for each novel is very similar but each novel bares a new layer to Lieutenant Dallas and her “O.M.G. every woman wants to get in close hubby” Roarke. This novel really takes you deep into Eve and she bares her soul or some of it so you really feel for her, at least I did. But amongst the soul searching there were some heartwarming and funny momenst between man and wife that help to make this futuristic series very real for me and keep me coming back for me. And more there is with well over 30 books in this series.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.8)
Task Total=25
Grand Total=270 pts