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Fall 2012 Rws Completed Tasks - Fall 2012
Anika wrote: "20.8 Veteran's DayThe Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey
+20 Task (published from 1981-2012)
+15 Combo
-10.2 (born in Australia)
-10.5 (author is 69 years old)
-20.7 (the two main female characte..."
Sorry, Anika, combo 10.5 is for main character over the age of 60 in fiction, and the author over 60 for non-fiction, as far as I can tell, this book does not qualify for 10.5
Anika wrote: "10.6 Election YearThe Assault on Reason by Al Gore
+10 Task
Task Total = 10
Grand Total = 360"
+5 Combo 10.3
Bea wrote: "20.3 Poe's TalesInterpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This is a collection of short stories.
+20 Task
Task Points: 20
Total Points: 265"
+10 Combo 10.3 and 20.1
Bea wrote: "20.6 DraculaCarmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The edition that comes up first shows 121p.
+20 Task
+10 Oldies (published 1872)
Task Points: 30
Total Points: 295"
+20 Combo 10.2-Ireland, 20.4, 20.6, 20.7A
10.4 Fall ColorsThe Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.8)
+10 Oldies (pub 1924)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1700
10.9 To Be Continued (First use)Rabbit Redux by John Updike
+10 Task
+5 Oldies (pub 1971)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1715
I'm really befuddled by my score. The reader board states it is up to date to post 1027. My score is 1330 and only have credit for the sub challenge. My last post was #968 where I completed the challenge and with bonus points and all I have 1635. I'm not even sure where the 1330 came from.Prior to post #968, my last post had been #968 and I had my total was 1305.
Rebekah wrote: "I'm really befuddled by my score. The reader board states it is up to date to post 1027. My score is 1330 and only have credit for the sub challenge. My last post was #968 where I completed the cha..."I have just updated it in the database. I knew you had finished, but clearly did not enter it into the system. Many apologies, and a belated congratulations!
The difference in score comes from post 897, multiple is only worth 5, not 10. The Readerboard will be updated in a minute.
Kate S wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "I'm really befuddled by my score. The reader board states it is up to date to post 1027. My score is 1330 and only have credit for the sub challenge. My last post was #968 where I c..."Ok! Thanks!
Kate S wrote: "Post 1008 and 1009 - Task 10.8 is not eligible for the multiple bonus, sorry...."No problem. I have adjusted my totals on both posts to 10 points each.
Kate S wrote: "+10 Combo 10.3 and 20.1" for my post 1018.So now I got back the 10 points lost on 10.8. LOL
Thanks, Kate.
Kate S wrote: "+20 Combo 10.2-Ireland, 20.4, 20.6, 20.7A" for my post 1020Kate, I have added 10 combo points for 20.4 and 20.7A but I do not think I can count combo for 20.6 as that is the task I posted the book for.
And, regarding 10.2 Ireland...I used that for a 10.2 task so is it also available for combo points?
Christine wrote: "Woops. Forgot about that. Thanks. Do i need to go back and fix? Or make a new post?..."You don't need a new post and you can fix if you want.
Just make the adjustment wherever you are keeping track of your score so you'll match our scores going forward.
Kate S wrote: "Leigh wrote: "20.10 World Suicide Prevention Day
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr
+5 Oldies-I have this..."
I don't want to grudge myself the 5 points because I'm not doing as well as I hoped this season... I see first published as 1990 on the listing. Am I somehow seeing the edition and not the original? Where I am I supposed to be finding the pub. date again?
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr
+5 Oldies-I have this..."
I don't want to grudge myself the 5 points because I'm not doing as well as I hoped this season... I see first published as 1990 on the listing. Am I somehow seeing the edition and not the original? Where I am I supposed to be finding the pub. date again?
Bea wrote: "Kate S wrote: "+20 Combo 10.2-Ireland, 20.4, 20.6, 20.7A" for my post 1020Kate, I have added 10 combo points for 20.4 and 20.7A but I do not think I can count combo for 20.6 as that is the task I..."
I will look at the combos again tonight, this book should be eligible for five tasks: one main and four combos. I posted the wrong one I am sure. :)
As to 10.2, each country can be used once for points and once for combo.
Leigh wrote: "Kate S wrote: "Leigh wrote: "20.10 World Suicide Prevention DayHer Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr
+5 Oldies-I have this..."
I don't want to grudge myself the 5 points because I'm not..."
Short story collections are tough, this one was changed to coincidence with her lifetime.
Oooh... I get it--the date of the newest story rather than the date of the anthology. That makes sense. I was tripped up before by not reading the black rather than pale gray pub. dates in the book listing and was careful of that on this one. When I read her biography, it mentioned her working on the anthology and I was surprised it took so long to publish after her death.
Kate S wrote: "As to 10.2, each country can be used once for points and once for combo."Thanks, I added one additional combo for 5 points more (10.2)
RwS Task20.4 – In honor of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla:
Every You, Every Me by David Levithan Low Lexile
+20 Task: LGBT Author
Grand Total: 1555
Thanks for finding me some extra points Kate :)Know Your ABCs:
15.5 - 5th book - letter O
The Greenhouse by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
2007
+20 Task
Grand Total: 1690
Bea wrote: "Kate S wrote: "+20 Combo 10.2-Ireland, 20.4, 20.6, 20.7A" for my post 1020Kate, I have added 10 combo points for 20.4 and 20.7A but I do not think I can count combo for 20.6 as that is the task I..."
The one I forgot is 20.8.
10.2 OktoberfestFaith and Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman's Passage in the American West by Sally Denton
Review: An interesting piece of American history told by a descendant of Jean Rio Baker Pearce. Jean Rio was a very well-off English woman who converted to Mormonism in England, and after being widowed, headed to Salt Lake City with her seven children. The author, Sally Denton, Jean Rio's great, great grand-daughter has copies of Jean Rio's journal covering her journey to Utah and some notes made after she left for California 17 years later. Unfortunately, she was unable to uncover much of Jean Rio's story while in the Mormon Zion, only a few memories of some of Jean Rio's grandchildren. The story of one of Jean Rio's daughters-in-law (and Denton's great grandmother) was an interesting addition.
This made for an uneven book with some intense personal experiences and some general Mormon history that Denton tried to keep tied to the Baker family.
I was not aware before I read this book how much effort the Mormons put in to converting and recruiting in Europe during their early settlement phase in Utah. And I was not aware of the large number of former Mormons who had moved on to California (according to the author, the numbers even surpassed the number that had arrived during the gold rush).
+10 Task (Denton was born in the US http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/librar... )
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 725
Kate S wrote: "Bea wrote: "Kate S wrote: "+20 Combo 10.2-Ireland, 20.4, 20.6, 20.7A" for my post 1020Kate, I have added 10 combo points for 20.4 and 20.7A but I do not think I can count combo for 20.6 as that i..."
Thanks, Kate....because of you I ended up with +20 combo points for post 1020.
15.10 - Know Your ABCs - 10th Book - Letter JMiddle Passage (1150 Lexile) by Charles Johnson (published 1990)
+45 Task
+200 Doctorate Bonus:
1969 - Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1976 - Butler - Patternmaster
1978 - Colwin - Happy all the Time
1980 - Doctorow - Loon Lake
1982 - Eddings - Pawn of Prophecy
1983 - Foster - For Love of Mother Not
1984 - Gemmel - Legend
1985 - Hambly - Dragonsbane
1989 - Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
1990 - Johnson - Middle Passage
Task Total: 245
Grand Total: 1605
20.8 Veteran AuthorThe Summer Book by Tove Jansson
What a lovely little book! It consists of a series of vignettes, showing us the forging of a lifelong relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter. The little girl's mother has just died, so the household consists of these two and "Papa" who never says anything but who we occasionally hear about.
The little girl is Sophia, and she seems very typical. We never learn the name of the grandmother, who I think is not particularly typical. They make up stories about the world around them. Usually they are part of the stories. Such imaginations! Once Sophia dictated a book about angleworms, and whether the worms have brains, and, if so, what they think when they find themselves in two pieces.
There is also the beauty of the northern island on which they spend their summers. There are flowers that grow out of the granite rocks and the sea that is ever-changing. I live on a northern island. Though quite different in terrain, it was also very familiar.
+20 Task (first published book in 1945)
+ 5 combo (20.4)
+ 5 Multiple
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (pub 1972)
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 820
Congratulations, Cory!I know I've missed other finishers along the way, so may I apologize for the omission, but give all of you a big pat on the back for a job well done!
Know your ABC's - Round Two15.8 - 8th book - letter T (2008)
Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer
+30 Task
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 605
Know your ABC's - Round Two15.9 - 9th book - letter U (2011)
Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder
+30 Task
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 635
20.9The Wheel of Things: A Biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery+ 20 task
+ 5 oldie (1975)
+ 5 combo 10.2 Australia
post total 30
20.3 Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories+20 task
+5 oldie (1985)
+5 combo 10.5 (Miss Marple)
+5 combo 20.8
post total +35
task 10.5Murder at the Vicarage main character MIss Marple
+10 task
+10 oldie (1930)
+5 combo 20.7 (Miss Marple talks to other women about current events
+5 combo 20.8
post total 30
Ok, I think I've found a way to be a RWS finisher.In post 133, I claimed Task 20.8 for Loving Sabotage by Amélie Nothomb, with combo points for 20.7 and 20.4, plus 10 points for a review for a total of 40 points.
I'd like to reclassify that book as 20.7 with combo points for 20.8 and 20.4, plus the same 10 points for the review. Thus, still at total of 40 points.
Post change: 0
Grand total: 645
In post 467, I claimed Task 15.4 - Blake's Therapy: A Novel by Ariel Dorfman.I'm moving this to:
20.8 Veteran Author
Blake's Therapy: A Novel by Ariel Dorfman
Review: I know nothing about this author and can't remember where I picked up this book - maybe from the $1 shelf at The Strand one afternoon? In any case, I quite enjoyed this spare book with so many threads of competing narrative. The book tells the story of a corporate executive in meltdown who seeks out a nontraditional “therapy” that will help him recover his zest for life and settle in his own mind the question of whether he is a “good person.” I always like well-written unreliable narrator stories, so my bias might be showing here, but I loved the way this book weaved different realities together. I was also laughing along with the witty send-up of corporations and corporate control as well as psychiatric "treatment". Really a fun book.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2(Argentina))
-20 (post 467)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 660
In post 466, I claimed Task 15.3 - Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo CoelhoI'm moving this to:
20.8 Veteran Author
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
Review: This is my second try at a Coelho book. I read, and hated, The Devil and Miss Prym. I didn't hate Veronika. But I found the constant moralizing completely unmoving and the story itself not particularly interesting. Yes, genius and insanity are related. Yep, everyone's a bit nuts. Yep, insane asylums, particularly the further back you go in time and the further from the United States you travel, are pretty screwed up. But there was so much more that could have been done with these themes to make an actually interesting story whilst reflecting on them instead of just bashing the reader over the head. At least the book was short. I don't think I'll be looking for more by this author.
+20 Task (Coelo first published a nonfiction book in 1992 and published a novella in 2012)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2 (Brazil))
+5 Multiple
-15 (post 466)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 685
In post 188, I claimed Task 15.2 - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique BaubyI'm moving this to:
20.9 Author Day
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Review: I really enjoyed this memoir. The story of the writing process is incredible and also leaves you wishing on behalf of the author that he'd had his stroke a decade or two later when assistive communication devices that are computer-driven would have been available. The book was literally dictated one letter at a time an editor with enormous patience. She would read out letters in the order of frequency of appearance in the French language and the author would blink when she got to the right letter. But the book transcends this painful process and provides insight into the author's pain, his love for his children, and his tremendous hope for the future. Sadly, the author died just two days after publication of the French version of this book.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Multiple
-15 (post 188)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 705
In post 130, I claimed Task 15.1 - Time's Arrow by Martin AmisI'm moving this to:
20.8 Veteran Author
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
Review: A very odd book - a life told backwards by a strange invented narrator. The narrator is inside the head of a person, watching what that person watches, but watching it all in reverse. The narrator seems to know some things about the world (e.g., understands about relationships) but also doesn't seem to realize that he's watching everything in reverse. As a technical matter, the story was cleverly handled, if somewhat gimmicky. Still, I wasn't overwhelmed by the novel. I don't want to give away spoilers, but I didn't like where the book went at the end. I haven’t read anything else by Martin Amis, nor have I read anything by his father, Kingsley Amis. I should seek out more by both of them.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Multiple
-15 (post 130)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 725
10.6 - Election DayTea Party Talk - The Governors by Amy Fried
Review: I know it isn't fair to review the book you wish you were reading instead of the one that you have, but I feel compelled to do so here. This book was fine for what it was - a pure collection of short (2-3 paragraph) biographies of the so-called Tea Party governors, followed by a collection of quotes from each governor. But other than a short introduction by the authors, there is nothing else. There is no effort to compare and contrast the policies or positions of the governors, there is no effort to synthasize the quotes or analyze them, and there is no added political commentary. Without such additional material, the book didn't really help my thinking as much as I'd hoped. It was interesting to read the actual statements of many of these governors, and to see the moments when they seemed almost surprised that governing was a hard job, but overall, I wanted more.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 745
10.1 Square PegThe First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike Dash
Review: Absolutely gripping. The author presents a carefully researched and completely new to me history of the mafia in the United States starting in the late 1800s. While the more common knowledge of mafia and organized crime seems to start around 1920 or thereabouts with Al Capone and The Godfather and such, this book picks up the backstory and tells of the Barrel Murder and Guiseppe "Clutch Hand" Morello.
The reader for the audiobook version was fantastic. The material was read in a smooth and clear voice even as he described the horrific violence and murder associated with the mob. This fit the style of the book, which went out of its way not to overly sensationalize the material, perfectly.
+10 Task (UK author younger than 60 who hasn't been an elected official but hasn't published 20+ years of books, Art didn't read it, nonfiction, published in 2009, not a memoir, not essays, etc.)
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 765
And, that makes for a RWS finish:
+100 RWS finish
Grand total: 865
Joanna wrote: "10.1 Square Peg+10 Task (UK author younger than 60 who hasn't been an elected official but hasn't published 20+ years of books, Art didn't read it, nonfiction, published in 2009, not a memoir, not essays, etc.)
And, that makes for a RWS finish:"
Love the Task "not" list!
Congratulations on the RwS finish!
10.9 To Be Continued...Broken Harbor by Tana French
Somehow I always forget that I like Tana French's mysteries so much. This is the fourth in the series, and each time I have to ask myself if I want to get it. And yet every time, I'm impressed. (Maybe by book 5 I will just pick it up without the dithering!). This is a new set of characters for French, though still in the Dublin murder squadroom. Scorcher Kennedy and his rookie partner Ritchie are working on a murdered family case in the place Kennedy's family used to vacation in happier times. Both main characters were drawn very well, I thought; even when sometimes both had attitudes that annoyed me, they seemed realistically annoying! The plot kept me intrigued, too -- there were some twists (one big one) that I truly did not see coming and actually prompted me to gasp. French's pattern here is to connect the current cases with her characters' pasts and I think she does this really well here, allowing you to see how hard it is for any of us to truly separate our perspectives and histories and see anything with perfect neutrality.
+10 task (#4 in Dublin Murder Squad series -- I've read the others)
+5 combo (10.2 - Tana French is from Ireland)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (533 pgs)
Task Total: 30 points
Grand total 570
10.5 - Honor the Elderly The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
+10 task (The narrator, a retired man, describes himself as "a bald man in his sixties")
+ 5 Combo (20.8 Julian Barnes has published from 1980-2012)
Task total=15
Grand total=870
15.8 Know Your ABCsLetter T, published 1955
Thurber's Dogs: A Collection of the Master's Dogs, Written and Drawn, Real and Imaginary, Living and Log Ago by James Thurber
+30 Task
Season Total: 1745
RwS Task10.1 Square Peg
The Leopard by Jo Nesbø
+10 Task (Thanks, Ismaa for pointing out this author :), this book does not pass the Bechdel test, nor fit any of the 7s, in addition to the previously explained author aspects)
+5 Jumbo
+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish
Post Total: 315
Season Total: 2060
20.8 Veteran AuthorHole in the Sky: A Memoir by William Kittredge
Review: A beautiful memoir. Kittredge tells the stories of his family and the land they occupied in southeast Oregon. He acknowledges the mistakes they made in "industrializing" the land and he acknowledges the mistakes he made in his own life. It took him a long time to outgrow his "little boy" stage and he left some wreckage in his wake. I got a little fed up with his alcohol fueled pity parties but he does salute the people in his life who nudged him in constructive paths. His odes to the land and to the tough people who worked it are wonderful. And his deep felt history of this land and his family had me setting my roots in it along with him.
+20 Task Kittredge has published books from 1976-2006
+10 Combo (10.5 Kittredge was born in 1932, this book was published in 1992, 20.9 memoir)
+5 Multiple
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 770
Task 10.7 - Karen GHHS' Task - Monsterfest IVAlso fits Task 20.7 Bechdel Test: the work must (i) have at least 2 female characters who (ii) talk to each other about (iii) something other than a man/men
Queen Victoria gives our heroine a mission in a conversation that is “unrelated to “a man/men””.
Our heroine and an eccentric female French business owner (and possible spy) have several conversations unrelated to men.
Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) (2010) by Gail Carriger
+10 Task
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points): (20.7 Bechdel Test)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points):
Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
And, yeah!, I have a Mega Finish!
+100 pts challenge completion
+200 pts Mega Finish bonus
Grand Total: 1500 + 25 + 100 + 200 = 1825
Review: This is the second novel in the “Alexia Tarabotti” series. It’s a continuation of the first novel, and it assumes that you remember the world building details and major characters from the first novel. I found this installment more entertaining than the first one, as the author could spend more time on character interactions and less on how THIS world works. Changeless is more steampunk than the first one – complete with Queen Victoria, dirigibles, “glassicles” (a form of eyeglasses), and brass encrusted, steam powered machines. This novel, unlike the previous novel in the series, ends with a huge TO BE CONTINUED moment. Recommended for fans of steampunk (but be sure to read the first in the series, Soulless, before reading this one!)
Kate S wrote: "+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish"
Yippee! Congratulations!
Deedee wrote: "And, yeah!, I have a Mega Finish!
+100 pts challenge completion
+200 pts Mega Finish bonus"
More applause! Congratulations!
In message 978, I posted a task for 35 points but the current readerboard doesn't seem to have those points reflected in it and its been updated up to post 1025 (or something like that). I have my total as 305, just want to check as I have another book to post. Thanks.
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Ashley wrote: "20.8 - Veteran Author
Heart 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 i..."
Sorry, Ashley, Joseph only has 6 letters in his name