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Fall 2013 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2013
15.1 Pick'n'Mix #1B.1 - Haut by Michael Wallner (published 2002)
Task Points: 15
Challenge Points: 15
Grand Total: 15
15.2 Pick'n'Mix #2C.6 - Dust by Hugh Howey (470 pages)
Task Points: 15
Challenge Points: 30
Grand Total: 30
20.7 - Don’s task: Jewish AuthorsThe Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender
Aimee Bender is a masterful writer of the short story. The title story, The Color Master, was my stand-out favorite among many gems followed closely by Americca and Devourings. All three of these stories had the elements of fairy tales and magical realism that I love in Bender's work. I often wonder if editors of short story collections name the book with the story title they think is the best of the collection, or if they are simply choosing what will make the best overall title. Whatever the reason, I often find myself drawn to the title story of a collection. I love descriptions of color and this story will have me looking at color differently with words like "When she sees a tomato, she sees blues and browns, curves and indentations, shadow and light..." leading me on, I'm looking forward to many new color discoveries. The descriptions of making dresses the colors of the moon and sun were just exquisite! I didn't love every story, which is often the case with short story collections, but it was fine work overall.
+20 Task: on linked list / American Jewish Authors
+ 5 Combo: 10.5 - In honor of Labor Day: on linked list, like cooper in meaning
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 365
20.5 In Search of Lost TimeThe Moon And Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
Review:
The librivox recording I listened to has two readers: Chip and Barry Eads. Chip was a fantastic reader - on par with professional audiobook readers. Unfortunately, Barry Eads was a merely adequate reader. His reading was clear and enunciated, but had no passion or style. Thus, the second half of the book felt quite flat to me. As for the story, I never fully connected to the characters nor was I particularly taken with the exploration of the artist's inner passion. That said, the writing was beautiful and I probably should have either tracked down a professional recording or read the text to fully appreciate it.
+20 Task
+25 Combo (10.3 ["and"], 10.6 [d. 1965], 10.7 [British man lives mostly in France & Tahiti], 20.2 [1874-1965], 20.4 [on linked list for romans à clef])
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Task total: 65
Grand total: 95
20.10 Poverty DayChaka by Thomas Mofolo
Review:
A fascinating telling of the tale of Chaka, Zulu king and mass murderer. At first, it seems like a history of a great leader and ambitious creator of the Zulu people. Then, the story becomes increasingly horrific as Chaka devolves from a strong and charismatic young warrior to a vengeful and evil murderer. Even as he obtains the kingships he wishes for, his bloodlust becomes more and more uncontrolled, leading him to execute broad swaths of his own people as well as waging war against all neighboring peoples. Throughout, I was compelled to keep reading to see where the story would lead even though it was clear early on that the tale could only end in tremendous violence and horror. Extremely powerful writing.
+20 Task (Author born in Lesotho)
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.2 - Author 1876-1948)
+10 Non-Western
+10 Review
Task total: 50
Grand total: 145
15.3 Pick N' MixC1 - MPE 84 pgs. - She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
Task total: 15
Grand total: 160
20.1 Swann's WayFire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Review:
A charming novel set in the French countryside in the 1930s. The reader for the audiobook version did an excellent job. The story is narrated by Silvio, who was originally from the village and has returned in middle age to enjoy a solitary life. But he's as deeply connected to the village secrets as everyone else in town, making him a perfect narrator. He's both detached and yet intertwined and the secrets are doled out slowly as the reader becomes more entranced with the story. Quite a lovely tale, and a perfect length for me to listen to the whole thing during one long drive.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.6, 20.2 [Author 1903-1942]; 20.7)
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 205
20.9 In Honor of JFKCorelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Review
Set mostly on a Greek island during WW II, this book is an excellent chronicle of the chaos of war. It particularly addresses the changes in allegiances that aren’t so well known and how it devastated a country, its villages, relationships, a way of life and its faith in God. Narrated in primarily two voices, an Italian soldier’s personal writings and a third person narrative for the rest of the characters. Amongst the politics, war, criminal acts and near starvation there is a central romance between a local village but educated village girl and an Italian soldier of the occupying forces. The story proceeds after the war, to the devastating earthquake of 1953 until the 1990’s. Due to separations, assumptions and misunderstandings the lovers are star crossed until they meet again in a completely different world from which they had first met and loved
+20 pts - Task (#27 on list)
+10 pts - Combo ( 10.7 -Italians occupying Greek Island, 10.10 - Coralie's choice)
+10 pts - Review
Task total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 175 pts
10.5 Labor DayAuthors last name is from the profession list.
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
+ 10 Task
+5 Combo (10.6: Author died 04/02/1966)
+5 Combo (20.2: Author born 12/13/1901)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 35
Pick 'n' Mix15.4 E4 Biography
Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood by Carlos Andres Gomez
+15 Task
Grand Total = 90 points
Pick 'n' Mix15.1 - A1 - Setting North America
High Country Fall by Margaret Maron
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
Pick 'n' Mix15.2 - C4 - Pgs 250 - 350
Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron - 320 pgs
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 30
Pick 'n' Mix15.3 - B2 - Publish date 1976 - 2000
One Step Behind by Henning Mankell - published 1997
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 45
20.9 - WWII FictionCity of Thieves - David Benioff
+20 task
+5 combo (20.7 - Jewish Holidays)
Post total: 25
Grand total: 40
10.7 - Rebekah's task - Ex-pat experience:Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie 9/16/13
Read a book in which the main character lives in a country other than his/her native country, and experiences a different culture than that with which s/he is natively familiar.
At the age of 14 Catherine (then Sophia) was sent from her native Germany to Russia, never to return. She had to learn a new language and adapt to a culture and norms far different from her own.
Review:
Having read Robert K. Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra shortly after it was published in 1967, I looked forward to his newest book on Catherine the Great. Once again Massie makes history a joy to read, relying on letters and memoirs of the persons involved to tell their stories.
Here is the story of the 14 year old Sophia, the daughter of a lesser German nobleman, who is taken to Russia to wed the boy who may one day become Emperor. Once there, she immerses herself in everything Russian – learning to speak, read, and write the language and studying the culture and politics of her new country. She even gives up her religion to join the Russian Orthodox Church and takes the name of Catherine, chosen for her by the reigning monarch, Empress Elizabeth.
She endures much in her early years in that country, suffering an immature husband with no interest in consummating their union. Meanwhile the Empress grows impatient that she has not done her duty by bearing an heir to perpetuate the Romanov dynasty. Still, she perseveres, and ultimately seizes the throne herself as Empress Catherine II, known to history as Catherine the Great.
I used Whispersync for Voice to alternately read the Kindle book and listen to the Audible version. Page count is for the most rated version on GR with 642 pages.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 jumbo
Task Total: 25 points
RWS Grand Total to date: 195
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 15
15.2 Pick N MixC1 < 125 pages
Seven Deadly Sins by Eileen Bell
Goodreads lists 52 pages mine was 44
+ 15 points
Grand Total: 50 points
20.10 Under developed CountryThe Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
+ 20 task (Afghanistan)
+ 5 Combo (10.4-Prix Goncourt)
+ 10 Non-Western
Task Total: 35 points
Grand Total: 330
Pick N Mix15.5 B-2 pub 1991
Dead on the Island by Bill Crider
Task Total - 20 pts
Grand Total - 195 pts
Napoleon's Hemorrhoids: And Other Small Events That Changed History by Phil Mason+ 10 task 10.5 - profession - mason
+ 5 combo - 10.3 - conjunction junction: and
task total = 15
grand total = 105
15.4-2 published 1976-2000Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
published 1987
+15 points
Grand Total: 345 points
Joanna wrote: "20.1 Swann's WayFire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Review:
A charming novel set in the French countryside in the 1930s. The reader for the audiobook version did an excellent job. The story is..."
Sorry, Joanna, this book does not qualify for 20.1 as Irène Némirovsky was not born in France. I have scored it as 20.2 and combos for 10.6 and 20.7. If you would like it scored a different way, please let me know. It also qualifies for Non-Western points (+10).
Pick 'n' Mix15.2 - D2. Female, < 40
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier 9/18/13
The author is a woman born in 1907 and age 34 when this novel was published in 1941.
+15 points
RWS Total to date: 195
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 30
Grand Total to date: 225
20.2 In Search of Lost TimeA Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
+20 Task (1896-1972)
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.6)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 330
20.2 In Search of Lost TimeAs I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
+20 Task (1897-1962)
+10 Canon
+10 Combo (10.5-author name on wiki list, 10.6)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 370
20.7 Jewish HolidaysScenes from Village Life by Amos Oz
+20 Task (Amos Oz is a Jewish Author-Wikipedia Bio)
+10 Non-Western
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 400
20.9 WWII FictionSuite Française by Irène Némirovsky
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.2, 10.6, 20.2, 20.7)
+10 Non-Western
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 450
20.8 Stephen King's BirthdayThe Golden Ass by Apuleius
+20 Task
+10 Canon
+10 Combo (10.6, 10.9)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 490
15.1 Pick 'n' MixB1-published 2001-2013
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 505
20.3 Belle EpoqueThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
I loved this book! And that coming from someone who normally slogs through non-fiction. Truth is truly stranger than fiction...This book weaves together the miraculous story of a city built on a short deadline in the most inhospitable of circumstances and under the world's scrutiny by the most gifted and influential of architects and artists and the story of serial killer. You wouldn't think they'd be related, but you'd be oh so mistaken.
In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Fair. They built a white city to welcome the world and change America for good. I was shocked to find how many things have roots in or a connection to this fair: Chicago's nickname of "the Windy City" (which has nothing whatsoever to do with the kind of wind that blows down the city streets); Walt Disney; the pledge of allegiance; the Ferris wheel; Shredded Wheat and Juicy Fruit; the domination of A/C current; the Wizard of Oz; Columbus Day; Frank Lloyd Wright.
While the world's eye was blinded by the grandeur of the White City, dark deeds multiply in its shadows. I don't want to give away much of the H. H. Holmes storyline because it's just too...unbelievable.
I'd highly recommend this book to...pretty much everyone. You want a good story: you got it. You want history: you got it. You want a compelling, well wrought and researched piece of writing: you got it.
+20 Task (#33 on Belle Epoque list)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.3 "and")
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 110
10.1 - Square peg: Voices of Sag Harbor: A Village Remembered by Nina Tobier 9/18/13
Read a book that does not fit any of the other Reading with Style 10 or 20-point tasks.
This lovely collection of memories is my square peg choice this season.
Review:
This was a very special find for me, since Sag Harbor is the village in which I grew up. Sadly, I seldom get there to visit, the last time being in 2000. The book was the project of a group supporting the village library and contains the stories of many long-time residents. Among those were my Godfather and former Mayor, my Pastor, the Chief of Police, the school Band Instructor who gave me violin lessons, the local grocer, our neighbors, and many friends of my parents.
One story even mentioned my Dad by name as part of a small group of friends (including John Steinbeck) who regularly hung out at a spot at the Marina they called the Upper Deck. You had to be a member or invited to go up there. Dad and Mom passed away over 30 years ago, and it was good to remember them through these friends.
Most of the stories were told by very elderly residents, but a few younger folks were mentioned as well, including a guy a year or two older than me. I smiled and remembered a midnight swim he and I took in the bay many years ago. With only the moon for light, it was amazing to see the glow from various organisms living in the salt water. The water truly sparkled! Yes, this was a book of memories!
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20 points
RWS Total to date: 215
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 30
Grand Total to date: 245
20.1 French pub Author born in FranceLost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.6, Balzac, born Amiens, 1799-1850)
+ 5 Jumbo (656 pages)
Task total = 30
Grand total = 75
Kate S wrote: "Joanna wrote: "20.1 Swann's WayFire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Joanna wrote: "20.1 Swann's Way
Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Sorry, Joanna, this book does not qualify for 20.1 as Irène Némirovsky was not born in France. I have scored it as 20.2 and combos for 10.6 and 20.7. If you would like it scored a different way, please let me know. It also qualifies for Non-Western points (+10). "
Duh! I think of her so strongly as a French author that I forgot she was actually born in the Ukraine. I'd like to move this to 20.7 with combos for 20.2 and 10.6. Thanks.
New Grand Total: 210
10.2 - Celebrate Book Lover’s Day (November 2nd)The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 720 Lexile
Review for my students:
Every time I tried to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it was checked out! I finally got my chance and I am so glad to have read this classic coming of age tale. The book is made up of a series of letters telling the story and you really feel that you get to know Charlie and his friends by the end of the book. Charlie is a wallflower and his confusions, joys and sorrows all come through loud and clear. I am eager to see the movie now. If you have seen it, let me know what you thought.
+10 Task: #37 on the list
Grand Total: 375
Karen GHHS wrote: "10.2 - Celebrate Book Lover’s Day (November 2nd)The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 720 Lexile
Review for my students:
Every time I tried to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower..."
Loved the book and absolutely adored the movie. I feel like it'll be the Breakfast Club for this generation. (Disclaimer: I read the book when it first came out and haven't re-read it since, so can't speak to how well the movie holds to the book...but as individual pieces of art, both were exceptional in my estimation.)
Task 20.6 Author influenced by ProustMessage 3 of the help thread lists Iris Murdoch as having been influenced by Proust.
Iris Murdoch
Born: in Dublin, Ireland On: July 15, 1919
Died: February 08, 1999
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
Review:The focus of this novel is on the mid-life crisis of a middle¬-aged “housemaster” at a Boy’s Boarding School (located 20 miles south of London). His marriage is routine (rather than romantic), and his position at the school is secure and unchaning. Then ….. a beautiful young woman, a professional portrait painter, arrives to paint the portrait of the recently-retired Headmaster. Our hero notices her, and the novel unwinds from there. Murdoch spends the bulk of the novel analyzing the interior life of her major characters. The reader feels as though s/he really *knows* these characters by the end of the novel. Murdoch later novels won the Booker Prize, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Whitbread Literary Award for Fiction. Recommended to fans of “literary fiction”.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.6 author died; 20.2 author alive 1909-1922; 20.5 novel about artist)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 15 + 10 = 45
Grand Total: 65 + 45= 110
20.2 - Author alive 1909-1922Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande
Review:
This was the required reading for a creative writing class that I'm taking this winter. It's an interesting book that focuses on how to get your mind working in the right way to unleash a flood of creativity. I think Dorothea Brande was probably the first teacher to suggest writing "morning pages". She also talks about meditation techniques although she doesn't call it meditation but "releasing genius".
There's no technical information about characterisation, pacing, plot etc. Perhaps because of that, it has hardly dated at all and still seems very useful and even inspiring today, although it was first published in 1934.
I'm just a little worried because she says you mustn't read any fiction until you've finished whatever you're writing, so my challenge reading might dwindle away to nothing after the classes begin on October 1st!
+20 task (lived 1893-1948)
+10 combo (10.5 "writer" in the title, 10.6)
+10 review
Task Total: 40 points
Grand Total: 510
20.6 - In Search of Lost Time Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 9/20/13
Read a book written by an author influenced by Proust.
Nabokov is included in Liz M's approved list of authors for this task.
Review: (view spoiler)
Combos:
10.6 Nabokov died in 1977
10.7 The main character, Humbert, was a Frenchman who had emigrated to the United States.
20.2 Nabokov (1899-1977) was alive between 1909 and 1922
+20 task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.6, 10.7, 20.2)
+10 Canon
Task Total: 55 points
RWS Total to date: 270
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 30
Grand Total to date: 300
Pick N Mix15.6 - D3
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Task Total - 20 pts
Grand Total - 215 pts
10.9 It IS UnusualThe Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick (Lexile 730)
+10 Task
Task Total = 10
Grand Total = 120
20.2 – 1909 to 1922Selected Poems by Léopold Sédar Senghor
As I was researching books for various tasks for this challenge, I came across this book of Selected Poems by Leopold Sedar Senghor , former president of Senegal. I always have my radar out for reading related to Africa because the classes I work with in the fall study Africa, so I was happy to find this collection. Not only did it contain poems set in Africa, but dealt with the colonialism experienced in Senegal under French rule, so some of the poetry was set in France or related to French/Senegalese relations and the original language of the poems is French. The poetry is not rhymed which is my personal preference. The visions of Africa ..."African night my black night, mystical-lucid black-brilliant"... developed a picture of the continent's beauty and I enjoyed reading this unusual collection.
+20 Task: Born 1906 & Died 2001
+10 Combo: 10.6 - In honor of All Saints Day (Died 2001) / 20.10 - Liz M’s Task (Senegal)
+10 Review
+10 Canon
+10 Non western
Task Total: 60
Grand Total: 435
10.6 - In honor of All Saints DayKatharine, the Virgin Widow by Jean Plaidy 9/21/13
Read a book by an author who died before September 1, 2013...Jean Plaidy died January 18, 1993.
Review: In the past year I’ve read a number of novels in the historical fiction category that focus on British royalty during the Plantagenet and Tudor eras. This book is the second of Jean Plaidy’s Tudor Series, telling the story of Katharine of Aragon from the time she left Spain at 14 through her marriage to Henry VIII. It was Henry’s frail older brother Arthur that Katharine had come to wed, but Plaidy follows the theory that the marriage was never consummated before Arthur died of illness shortly thereafter. Hence the book’s title.
Aside from Katharine’s story, the book also goes into detail on the story of her sister, Juana of Castile, wife of Philip of Burgundy. This was not covered in another book on Katharine I’d read, and I found it interesting. (view spoiler)
Combos:
10.7 The main character, Katharine of Aragon, was a Spanish Infanta who was sent to England at the age of 14.
20.2 Plaidy (1906-1993) was alive between 1909 and 1922
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.7, 20.2)
Task Total: 30 points
RWS Total to date: 300
Pick 'n' Mix Total to date: 30
Grand Total to date: 330
15.5 Pick'n'MixF6: originally published in Swedish; read the German translation
Upp till toppen av berget by Arne Dahl
+ 20 Task
Grand Total: 80
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Reading with Style
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The Blue Mountain (other topics)
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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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Flying with Paper Wings: Recollections on Living with Madness by Sandy Jeffs
+15 points
Grand Total: 280 points