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Fall 2013 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2013
Pick'n'mix15.1 F-5, Translation from Spanish
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Task total: 15 points
Grand total: 15 points
Pick'n'Mix15.2 E-1, genre: sci-fi
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
Task total: 15 points
Grand total: 30 points
In Post 411 Heather wrote: "20.10 - least developed countries - NigeriaNo Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
+20 task
+10 non western
+10 canon
+10 combo - 10.6 (died March 21, 2013), 10.7 (main character born and schooled ..."
I'm sorry, Nigeria isn't one of the countries on the list. Let us know which of your combo tasks you'd like this applied to.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "In Post 411 Heather wrote: "20.10 - least developed countries - NigeriaNo Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
+20 task
+10 non western
+10 canon
+10 combo - 10.6 (died March 21, 2013), 10.7 (main ..."
never mind. I just figured it out myself.
Heather wrote: "then I have a question - are Niger and Nigeria separate, then? "
Yes, those are two different countries.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Heather wrote: "then I have a question - are Niger and Nigeria separate, then? "
Yes, those are two different countries."
ok, question on something else, then. if a book is OVER 500 pages, would it qualify for C6 for pick n' mix? i'm trying to see if I can move No Longer At Ease over to my ex pat spot and use The Poisonwood Bible as my 15.4.
Heather wrote: "ok, question on something else, then. if a book is OVER 500 pages, would it qualify for C6 for pick n' mix? i'm trying to see if I can move No Longer At Ease over to my ex pat spot and use The Poisonwood Bible as my 15.4. "Ok, funny answer then. ;-)
No, a book over 500 pages cannot be used for C-6. Are you using the plan in Post #33 in the My Mix thread? If so, it looks like you have only 1 in the A-Setting category and only 1 #6 choice. The Poisonwood Bible is set over 75% in Africa and would qualify for A-6.
Also, Heather, you can repeat tasks as many times as you like, so you could use both the Kingsolver and the Achebe for 10.7.
yes, I am. I can drop Cosmos as my E6 and use The Poisonwood Bible as A6 instead as my 4th pn'm. Then I can use No Longer At Ease as my ex-pat, correct? that would take 15 points off of it, if i'm doing my math correctly - 10 instead of 20 point task and only 5 for the combo, but *give* me 5 points on The Poisonwood Bible.
whew... this is a pain. i'm really sorry about the trouble. >.<
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Also, Heather, you can repeat tasks as many times as you like, so you could use both the Kingsolver and the Achebe for 10.7."I didn't realize that... do you still get the points if you do one more than once?
Heather wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Also, Heather, you can repeat tasks as many times as you like, so you could use both the Kingsolver and the Achebe for 10.7."I didn't realize that... do you still get t..."
Yes, you get all of the points every time you read for a task - including all combos, etc. Some people don't want to repeat because they want the finisher and can't read more than one for each task. So many strategies.
oh, cool. gotcha. then leave everything as it is and count No Longer at Ease as 10.7 again! that would just drop 15 points off my total for the task, which i'll go back and change now.
20.5Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
+ 20 Task
+ 25 Combo (10.6, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4)
+ 10 Canon)
Task Total: 55 points
Grand Total: 650
20.2 In Search of Lost TimeThe Last of Cheri by Colette
Review:
What amazed me about this book was the way that Lea managed to dominate my feelings about the book even though she only appears in one brief chapter and is only glimpsed through the eyes of Cheri. In the first book, Colette manages to describe with pitch-perfect text the emotions of doomed lovers and a woman facing the changes in her life as she ages. Here, we see the woman transformed from stylish and sexy courtesan to decidedly frumpy but brilliantly comfortable and happy middle/old age. I couldn't stand Cheri and am glad to see the last of him here as he mopes around moaning about how he's thirty (30!) and his youth and life is over and his marriage is pointless and all the rest. But the picture of Lea was so powerfully drawn that the book came together for me. I'm totally smitten with Colette. How had I totally missed this author before now?
+20 Task (1873-1954)
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.6, 10.9 [Colette = single name], 20.1, 20.6)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 560
15.6 – C4 – 250-350 pgHen of the Baskervilles by Donna Andrews (320 pgs)
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 660
20.7 JewishChildren of God by Mary Doria Russell
Review: Children of God picks up just days after the end of The Sparrow, but has a different focus. While both books in many ways revolve around Emilio Sandos, this one delves more deeply into the alien species the humans encountered, and investigates the impacts the visitors’ have had on the planet. In a recent event I attended, Russell described this project as an attempt to recreate a discovery of a new world from a more modern perspective – would we do better than Columbus? She seems to be answering with a resounding “NO!” The thing I like most about her books is that she portrays people (and aliens) as real – with faults and traumas and doubt and all the mess that goes along with sentience – but she does it with empathy. In this sequel, she shows the perspectives of the villains from The Sparrow, shows the ugliness of what can happen when justice turns to revenge, and faces the idea that a person may have good motivations but treat someone with great cruelty. There seems to be a trend in which authors use the worst parts of humanity to create reality – no one is safe, anyone can die, no one is all good – they find the bad parts of everyone and make the reader hate the heroes. I wish more of them could do what Mary Doria Russell does and find the good, make the reader love the villains – because creating empathy is one of the best things fiction can do.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (many characters, including narrators, are from alien species)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 695
20.3 Belle EpoqueThe Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Review: I’ve been trying to tackle some of the great science fiction classics, since I came to the genre late and feel like I missed out on a lot. This is actually the first thing I ever read by H.G. Wells, and while it was interesting I have to say I prefer more modern time travel explorations. There really isn’t much science in this, and in fact the whole thing revolves around a man telling a story to a group of people, all of whom (including the Time Traveler himself) question whether or not it’s all in his head. There is a distance that begins from that narrative device, and continues inside the story within the story. The Time Traveler goes so very far into the future that the people he meets really aren’t people at all, but are two types of creatures that barely hold onto any form of humanity. He hypothesizes that he’s seeing an extreme result of the dichotomy between upper and lower classes – an upper class of beautiful leisurely creatures and a lower class of underground monsters. It’s an issue is as relevant today as it was when Wells wrote this, but I would have rather read it directly than as allegory.
+20 Task (#18 on list)
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.2)
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 745
Isabell wrote: "100 Pick'n'Mix Completion Bonus"Well done, Isabell!! Congrats.
10.7 Ex-Pat ExperienceThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.6, 20.4, 20.2)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 935
20.2 1909-1922The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3, 10.6)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 965
Pick and Mix15.7 - D6 - Female 60+
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 10/9/13
Kate Atkinson was born in 1951, so she was 62 when this book was published in 2013.
+20 Task
RwS Total to date: 380
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 120
Grand Total to date: 500
Pick'n'Mix15.03 - C5 - 325-425 pages
Magic Rises - Ilona Andrews
+15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 125
15.7 D5 Male 60+ or posthumousWagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails (2002) by Frank McLynn
Born: In The United Kingdom On: August 29, 1941
2002 (published) – 1941(born) = 61
Grand Total: 320 + 20 =340
15.9 B1-published 2001-2013Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Published 2008, Lexile 900
+30 points
Grand Total: 685 points
15.4 D3 Male 40-60Chuck Palahnuik was 46 when this was published.
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
+15
Grand Total: 120 points
Correction of message 166 - 15.1 Pick'N'Mix:I scored the following:
"B.1 - Haut by Michael Wallner (published 2002)"
and now want to change it into:
"D.3 - Haut by Michael Wallner (published 2002, Wallner was 44)"
10.2 - Celebrate Book Lover’s Day (November 2nd)Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
This book was recommended to me by a GHHS student and it was a great one! It is the perfect blend of old and new: the old bookstore and the unraveling of its mysteries and the new aspects of Google and everything that can be accomplished with their methods of finding solutions to the bookstore mysteries. Robin Sloan was an author I got to meet at an event at the American Library Association National Conference last summer and he said that he felt the new computer worker was under-represented in novels and he wanted to focus on that new world while creating a fantasy story. I laughed a lot while listening to this one. I pass on the recommendation to all!
+10 Task: #140 on list
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 875
20.6 Influenced by ProustThe Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Review: I really have a hard time with adolescent (or 20-something) male coming-of-age stories. And that’s really what this one is. Art has just graduated from college and is having his last summer of doing practically nothing before trying to carve a path in a respectable profession, breaking free of the family business like his father has always planned (his dad is a Jewish mobster). Art spends the summer with new friends, exploring his sexuality, drinking a lot of Rolling Rock, and being a dude in his early 20s. In the first half, the only thing that was keeping me interested was the fact that it’s set in my hometown, but by the end I actually found myself caring where Art ended up. I didn’t love the ending, but there was probably no satisfying way that the book could have ended while maintaining its realism. This one surprised me.
+20 Task (approved in help thread, and he mentioned Proust’s influence in the afterward to the book)
+5 (20.7 - http://michaelchabon.com/about/ talks about his Bar Mitzvah)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 780
20.2 Alive 1909-1922Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (930 Lexile)
Review: I can’t really believe I never read this as a kid – I had every ballet book I could find – but I’d never heard of it until Meg Ryan’s character in You’ve Got Mail recommends it in tears. In the end, it turned out to be much less about ballet than the theater, but had there been more theater books on my shelves as a kid I think they’d have been favorites too. It’s really your basic kids book in a lot of ways – orphans doing something most kids could only dream of by living in an English boarding house full of fun interesting adults, getting free admission into a performing arts’ school, and end up with fantastic careers before the age of 16! Why not? I think I’m going to get my hands on as many of the ‘Shoe Books’ as possible. I think they’ll end up as books that, assuming I have (probably female) children, I’ll put on their shelves in the hopes they pick them up (because if my potential future children are anything like me they won’t want to read anything I actually recommend to them).
+20 Task (Streatfeild lived from 1895-1986)
+5 Combo (10.6)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 815
20.1 Orignally in French, Author born in FranceA Harlot High and Low by Honoré de Balzac
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3, 10.6)
+10 Canon
+ 5 Jumbo (MPE 554 pages)
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 195
15.4 Pick'n'Mix #4C.1 - Zombicorns by John Green (72 pages)
Task Points: 15
Challenge Points: 60
Grand Total: 70
Pick'n'Mix15.4 C4: 250-350 pages - 304 pages
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
+15 Task
Grand Total: 890
20.8 - Kate’s Task: Stephen KingBeautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia low lexile
+20 Task
Grand Total: 920
15.5 E3 Short Stories/PoetryI Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max
+20 task
Grand Total: 140 points
15.5 Pick N' MixF2-Translated from Arabic
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
+20 Task
Grand total: 145
Pick and Mix15.8 - C4. 250-350 pages
The Violets of March by Sarah Jio 10/11/13
The version with most ratings has 296 pages.
+20 Task
RwS Total to date: 380
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 140
Grand Total to date: 520
Pick'n'Mix15.04 - F1 - Translated from Czech
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
+15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 140
20.7 - Don’s task: Jewish AuthorsLion's Honey: The Myth of Samson by David Grossman
I have been reading through the Canongate Myth Series, and enjoying the modern day retellings of familiar myths. David Grossman's Lion's Honey is more an essay and analysis of the Samson story and although it was fascinating and well written, this was disappointing. It brought back to me the confusions trying to explain to elementary age students why they would find their favorite fairy tales and myths in the non-fiction section of the library. They struggle with the concept that something that is obviously not "fact" is shelved in that way. It was engaging reading none the less and I especially enjoyed parts of the analysis that Grossman related to current day conflicts in Israel. It is not for everyone, but is recommended for anyone interested in Jewish issues and/or Biblical studies.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 965
20.7 Jewish AuthorNeil Gaiman is featured on this list of Jewish authors
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Review:
I’ve already read several books by Neil Gaiman, so I know what to expect: the unexpected. I’ve never read an author with a similar way of making the strange and unbelievable believable. He is certainly one of my favorites.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is his latest book. The story is told through a first-person narrator, who returns to his childhood home in his late forties for a funeral. To get away from it all he visits the house of a childhood friend when he was seven. And he remembers the adventures he encountered with her. As always Neil Gaiman surprised with the unexpected and made the surreal look real. I’m amazed at how he always pulls that off.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author himself. Sometimes one hast he feeling that the author isn’t a good choice for a narrator because … well, he’s an author and not a narrator. But Neil is also a good narrator and he gave the audiobook exactly the right feeling. Well worth listening to (or reading). I’ve enjoyed myself throughout the book.
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 475
20.8 Non-human mayor characterThe book is centered about a wolf called White Fang
White Fang by Jack London
Review:
White Fang is born in the wild. His parents are a wolf and a half wolf/half dog. When he is still a puppy he and his mother are captured by humans. White Fang struggles with this new life that goes against his instincts. We follow his life through several different owners and how he begins to rate his life as a domesticated dog over his life as a wild wolf. Even though not all of his owners are kind to him.
Sometimes it was difficult to listen to White Fang’s story. Not because it was of poor quality, but because he was often treated badly even though he tried very hard to do the right thing and obey his owners. This is one of the books that made me actually doubt that there was even a small chance of a happy end for White Fang.
However, I don’t regret having listened to it. I can certainly see why this is a classic in children’s literature. It is written wonderfully and does convey the hurt White Fang feels when he is mistreated. I can certainly recommend this, although perhaps not when the reader is already in a depressed mood.
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.6)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 510
10.3 - Conjunction JunctionAnita and Me by Meera Syal
Review:
Anita and Me is the thinly-disguised autobiography of Meera Syal who grew up as the only non-white child in her village in the Midlands of England in the 1960s and 70s. Of course I don’t know exactly how much was changed but if the name change is typical, it can’t be much – the main character’s name is Meena. There’s a point where a hospital nurse tells her, “I can’t pronounce your name, I’ll just call you Mary” and I thought – What? Can’t pronounce Meena? And it’s nothing like Mary … and then realized no, she was talking about Meera and then it makes sense. Anyway, it’s quite a funny/sad story in parts. It took me ages to read the first half but I raced through the second half.
+10 task (and)
+10 review
Task Total: 20 points
Grand Total: 625
10.4 - Prize-worthyThe Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier
Review:
This is a fictional account of the revolution in the French Caribbean territory of Saint-Domingue which became Haiti, mostly from the point of view of one of the slaves who was freed by the revolution and his master. It shows very effectively how people who are in the midst of tumultuous events actually have no clue what is going on. It seems to be classified as magical realism although there wasn’t that much of the magical in it, but it definitely shares a lot with Gabriel Garcia Marquez (for example) in terms of the writing style. It’s not my favourite style of writing generally and this left me a little cold, unable to find a hook for my sympathies.
+10 task (Miguel de Cervantes 1977)
+20 combo (10.5 carpentier, 10.6 died 1980, 20.2 lived 1904-80, 20.6 listed in help thread)
+10 review
+10 canon
Task Total: 50 points
Grand Total: 675
10.6 - All Saints DayThe Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones
Lexile 770
+10 task (died 2011)
Task Total: 10 points
Grand Total: 685
20.10 Liz M's TaskA Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
born in Afghanistan
Review: I listened to this as an audiobook. I enjoyed it. The woman who read it had a gentle accent which helped to relate to the story, but wasn't strong enough to be distracting. I think that I would not have liked the book as much had I read it, I don't think it would have kept my interest. The way that he spanned the decades pulling the most important incidents was great, it prevented the story from getting too stagnant. I felt a little lost with the political factions, perhaps because I couldn't go back and reread, or check past pages.
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo with 10.2 (# 94)
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 175 points
May I please change the categories in my Pick'n'Mix for two tasks as follows:15.2 Watership Down by Richard Adams claimed C6 in Message #132 on 9/14/13, but would like to change that to B3. Published 1951-1975. The book was published in 1972.
15.5 The Secret History by Donna Tartt claimed A1 in Message #302 on 9/29/13, but would like to change that to E2. Mystery Genre per BPL.
All points remain the same.
RwS Total to date: 380
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 140
Grand Total to date: 520
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 4: Materia (other topics)The Piper's Son (other topics)
The Name of the Rose (other topics)
The Name of the Rose (other topics)
The Blue Mountain (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Siddell (other topics)Melina Marchetta (other topics)
Umberto Eco (other topics)
Umberto Eco (other topics)
Meir Shalev (other topics)
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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
+ 20 Task
+ 20 Combo (10.3 (and), 10.6, 20.2, 20.3 - #7 on list)
+ 10 Canon (complete stories)
Task Total: 50 points
Grand Total: 600