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Winter 13/14 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 13/14
15.3 South KoreaPlease Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook (fits A, B, & C)
+15 task
+10 seafarer bonus
Task total = 25 pts
Grand Total = 250 pts
Did you like the book? I read it in October.
20.8 Disastrous ReadingInto Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Review:
I seem to have a lot of emotionally difficult books on my shelf for this month and this was the first of them. At once gripping, frightening and very painful to read, it details events leading to the deaths of 8 or more people in a 72-hour period in 1996 on Mount Everest. Jon Krakauer was not only there, but was one of only a very small number from his expedition to make it to the summit and back down.
My fear of heights would make it impossible for me even to reach Base Camp and even if there had been no disaster, no book about mountain-climbing would normally be high on my wishlist. Then not only are there horrible deaths and injuries, but also descriptions of the weird things that happen to the brain and body at high altitudes, and Krakauer’s painful post-traumatic stress/survivor guilt.
In spite of all this I found it an amazing book and hypnotically engrossing.
I did feel that Krakauer was probably a little bit biased in that he seems much quicker to forgive those he liked on the grounds of altitude-related disorientation than those he didn’t like so much. But this was very likely unconscious. He owns up to his own perceived errors. In these circumstances perhaps objectivity isn’t possible.
+20 task
+10 review
+ 5 combo (20.4, on both lists)
+10 not a novel
Task total: 45 points
Grand total: 850
10.9 Nobel PrizeSteppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (1946)
Review
I’ve decided I’m not “intelligentsia” enough for this high brow, philosophizing stream of conscious type of literature, if I’ve even named the type correctly. With both Hesse and Proust I feel like I need to go read the study guide to it to make sense of it. So I make a lousy reviewer of these types of works. Steppenwolf reminded me a little bit of The Night Circus and The Master and the Margharita, which I probably didn’t “get” as well. Dream worlds, transformations, dark sides with touches of murder. I’m sure it’s good. The imagery was nicely done so I gave it three stars for that and the minus of the other two stars is for my lack of understanding
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Oldies (1927)
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 460 pts
Task Total - 10 pts
Grand Total - 430 pts
*corrected post as this is a YA book
10.6 - first bookAt Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
+10 task
+10 not a novel
task total: 20
grand total: 715
20.5Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.
+20 task
+5 oldies (written in 1978)
task total: 25
grand total: 730
10.6 Beginnings/EndingsForeplay by Sophie Jordan
This is my first "New Adult" novel and I can't say I'm a fan. I liked college, I really did, but I can see no good reason to revisit all the social awkwardness and fumbling in bed. Add in that college aged Happily Ever Afters are doomed to fail and... yeah. It feels kinda like a lie.
Our heroine Pepper is smart because we're told she is, not because of anything that comes out of her mouth. She outright misuses words in a way I hope an editor would catch, especially if the next line is, "Gosh Pepper, you need to stop using all those big words with us regular people". GRAH.
I may give New Adult another chance, but I'll have to wait a while so I can thoroughly forget this book.
+10 task (10.6 - most recent book by this author)
+10 review
+5 Combo (Goodreads author)
Task total: 25 pts
Grand total: 125 pts
20.5 - DisturbingThe Prince by Tiffany Reisz
This is the third book of Reisz's Original Sinners series and man, it left me frustrated. The plot rotates, with three story lines going at once. If they all came together in a satisfying way at the end it would have been fine, but the only thing that connects them is a phone call.
Also, the first two books made me think about deep issues that are sorely lacking here. Sadism gets explored, but to get this far in the series you have to accept that everyone has their own kink. Sadism is not a big jump. Nor is the concept of gay love or being bi. So... Not very much to chew on.
A meh setup to what should be an amazing fourth book.
+20 Task (shelved as disturbing six times)
+10 review
+5 combo (10.5 - Goodreads author)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 160 pts
20.6 - 20th CA Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
+20 Task (#248 on list)
+ 5 Oldies (1953)
+10 Not-A-Novel (short stories)
Task total=35
Grand total=585
TtPR Seafarer15.4 New Zealand
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
+25 Task Total
Grand Total = 360 points
20.8 - Disastrous readingThe Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why by Amanda Ripley
This book is not about clapping heroes on the back, but about each of us finding our "disaster personality" so we know what to expect if the worst happens.
While I haven't been in a full-blown disaster I did experience Japan's March 11th earthquake (and thankfully not tsunami) first hand. Everything Ripley talks about here matched up with my experience perfectly. Many of the events she covers are well known but others, like the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, were new to me.
Best of all there is a ton of cocktail chatter in here. Did you know men are more likely to be killed by lighting, hurricanes, and fires? Or that, in some places, tsunamis kill more women than men?
An interesting read that will serve you well if that unthinkable day ever comes.
+20 task (pre-approved here)
+10 review
+10 Not a novel
+5 combo (10.5 Goodreads author)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 205 pts
20.6 Best Books of 20th CenturyA Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (#391 on list)
Review
Ah, Hemingway! Either you love him or hate him or in my case both. Most of his books I either rate 5 stars or completely give up because I can’t stand it any more. I had been hesitant about reading A Moveable Feast because of some presumptions I’d made, that it was only about authors going from café to café eating and menu descriptions. Since I hate to cook and not a Foodie, I hadn’t tried it. But reading the reviews, I gave it a shot and am glad I did. The next best thing to having the experience for yourself is reading Hemingway’s description of it. The company he kept and the authors he read! I’d love to go back and make a list of every author mentioned. Yes, there were some butter snails and French fries mentioned as well as several beverages but it wasn’t the point of the book as I had feared. His descriptions of becoming the writer he became and of eschewing adjectives was interesting. Even more interesting when I found he loved to read Proust.
I’m sure I’m not the only one that believes he intentionally did not publish in his lifetime. Like Mark Twain withheld some of his writings to avoid embarrassment of people he “tattled on.” I also felt it became an apology to his first wife. A wonderful peep into the world of the “Lost Generation” writers living in Paris Just as their stars began to ascend. Now I want to read The Paris Wife. Hope I have time to fit it in. Works for 20.7, 10.5 and even 10.6 if I hurry! Too bad McLain was born in 1965!
+20 pts - Task
+20 pts - Combo (10.9 -1954, 20.1, 20.4 - #17 on FTB list, 20.10 - b. 1899)
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Not a Novel
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1964)
Task Total - 65 pts
Grand Total -
20.9 - Daytona 500: Read a book that is at least 500 pages.The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley 1/10/14
The most popular edition has 876 pages.
Review:
I found The Mists of Avalon to be an enchanting fantasy…one of those long books you wish did not have to end. I listened to the audiobook during my long work commute and loved the narration by Davina Porter. Without revealing any spoilers, I can say that the story tells of King Arthur, Morgaine, Lancelot, Gwenhwyfar, the Goddess of Avalon and her Priestesses, the Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, and more, told from the perspective of the women. The characters are diverse, with some you’ll love and others despise. The writing is quite good, and I found it easy to be drawn into the scenes as described. For me, this was a 5 star read, and I’ll plan to read more of the series in the future.
Combos:
10.2 - shelved 5003 times as Fantasy
20.6 - #150 on the list of Best Books of the 20th Century on 1/11/14
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.6)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub 1982)
+15 Jumbo (876 pages)
Task total: 60 points
TtPR Total: 115
RwS Total: = 505
Grand Total: 620
10.8 - BINGOThe Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt
+10 Task (The Things a Brother Knows)
Task total=10
Grand total=595
20.9 Daytona 500The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Golden Notebook has an unusual structure. Sandwiched between a conventional novel about two progressive single mothers, Molly and Anna (the protaganist and author of the novel) in 1950's London, are the contents of Anna's writings, contained in 4 notebooks. Each notebook is constrained by a single topic. The black one details her life in Rhodesia during WWII. The yellow one contains a novel based on her own life. The red one traces her political life, including her membership in the communist party. And the blue one holds her personal diary. While she suffers from writer's block and questions the ability of any written work to truthfully represent reality, she uses her notebooks to examine, order, and create meaning in her chaotic life. Eventually she abandons the false divisions she has imposed on her experience and integrates all of the disparate elements in her life in a final Golden Notebook.
Lessing's novel gives such time and emphasis to every tiny aspect of Anna's life that initially I was not enthusiastic about reading it. However, Lessing recognizes that the personal is political, and she states in her introduction that she set out to create a novel of ideas about her time. As I began to see how Anna's personal life was linked to larger issues of the 1950's and to ideas about art and the novel, I quickly became immersed in her fascinating story. Anna's life is very unusual, as she attempts to live an honest life as a free woman, unconstrained by social expectations and morals. There is a strong argument throughout the book for people to "stand against the current, really [to be] ready to fight for the truth at all costs." Throughout the book Lessing identifies hypocrisy and contradiction in issues of race and class and depicts the strong undercurrent of misogynism in British and American culture, as well as the political in-fighting within the communist party.
While I enjoyed the insight I got about life in the 1950's in particular, I was most intigued by the structure of the story itself. As I mentioned, reading about Anna's life in minute detail can initially be off-putting. In my own life I have found that keeping journals can be dangerous. They allow you to emphasize and even exaggerate elements of your own life that may be minor, and the make you lose all sense of perspective. Because you are talking to yourself, you have no one against which to check your reality. This is a criticism Anna addresses in the novel. When she is told to stop brooding, she argues that brooding is important, even essential. By this I think she is making reference to her own habits of investigating and critiquing conventional assumptions and morality, including her own, and resisting those which are flawed. Nevertheless, Lessing also shows how Anna "cracks up" and becomes lost due to her habits of thought. This happens to the reader, too. As one reads the different notebooks and the novel they begin overlapping and interacting. Because they take place at different times in Anna's (and her fictional counterpart Ella's) life, one loses sense of time and reality one's self. I found myself wondering 'now, did that happen to Anna or Ella, and was that before X happened . . . '
The structure of Lessing's novel reminded me of a Magritte painting, in which a painting of a landscape is placed next to a window of the same landscape. One finds it difficult to see where the painting ends and the landscape begins, while all the time one contemplates this one realizes this is all being depicted in a painting. The novel breaks down the false order Anna, and the readers, attempts to place on reality, while at the same time announcing quite clearly that we are reading a work of fiction. There is a lot to chew on here.
+20 task
+10 combo (10.9, 20.6)
+5 Oldie
+5 Jumbo
+10 review
Task Total: 50
Grand Total:225
10.7 Short StoriesWhat We Talk About When We About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
Review: I often have difficulties connecting with short story collections and also with literary fiction, so I approach books such as this with some trepidation. I’m not sure if it’s Englander’s writing or the subject matter, but this one was a winner! I’m not Jewish, but I’ve read a lot of Jewish fiction and Holocaust books over the years, so I liked that part. The title story was probably my favorite, even though it shouldn’t be – it was basically middle aged suburban white folks sitting around being less than excited about life – but it was thought provoking and just the right length. That story builds a theme around the Holocaust – basically, that it is both the most important thing for the Jewish experience and also the most overblown. The rest of the stories hover around that – I kept expecting – maybe hoping for? – stories of the Holocaust. Sometimes Englander went there; sometimes he didn’t. I also liked that most of the stories had a modern folklore feel to them.
+10 Task (2012 winner of the Frank O’Conner Short Story Award)
+5 Combo (10.6 – as far as I can tell this is his most recent book – the only one after that is a contribution to an audio-only anthology)
+10 Not a Novel (short stories)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 315
10.9 NobelThe Tin Drum by Günter Grass
Review: I’ve had this book out of the library countless times (it always seems to fit a variety of tasks!) but never got around to reading it – something about it felt daunting. So when I started, I was pleasantly surprised. It had an interesting folk tale-magical realism vibe to it with a big dose of humor that I loved. That was when Oscar, the narrator of the book, was telling the tale of his grandparents and parents. There were a few passages that made me laugh outright in their cleverness. By the second part of the book, however, when Oscar is fully into his own story, I had almost entirely lost interest. After a while, I felt as though a good half of the story was devoted to Oscar’s (ahem) “third drumstick” and it’s exploits; given that Oscar presented himself to the world as a three year old boy, not just a little person, his sexual escapades were rather disturbing. There were glimpses throughout of the book I began to fall in love with – mainly when more of the focus was on people other than Oscar. All in all, a book that went up and down quite a bit for me, and many of whose subtler points likely were lost to me as my attention waned.
+10 Task
+15 Combo (20.2, 20.6, 20.9)
+5 Oldies (pub 1959)
+5 Jumbo (567 pg)
+10 Review
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 360
TtPR – SeafarerWild Justice by Kelley Armstrong (Armstrong was born in Canada, is Canadian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelley_A...)
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 375
10.6 Beginnings/EndingsParasite by Mira Grant
As a HUGE fan of Mira Grant's zombie political thriller series, starting Parasite was a risky proposition. I figured it was unlikely to be as good as the Newsflesh series, but couldn't bring myself not to give it a try. Initially, I was not thrilled -- Parasite seemed in some ways too similar to Newsflesh and in other ways not quite as good. However, I am glad, in the end, that I stuck with it. Once I got a little ways in, and had begun to care about what happened to the characters, the plot got interesting and I was able to appreciate what Mira Grant always brings to a book -- clever dialogue, interesting characters, and bold plot moves. She is also great at what I think the best part of any dystopian or science fiction story is -- making readers think a bit about how the world of the story reflects our world, and what we can learn from it. In the end, highly recommended.
+10 task (her most recent book)
+5 combo (20.9 - 504 pages)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (504 pages)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 125
20.7 Group Reads ReduxThe Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
+20 task (Winter 2010-11 group read)
+5 combo (10.3 - on detective fiction list)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 150
10.8 - BingoNine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
+10 task
+5 combo (10.5 - Goodreads author)
Task total: 15 pts
Grand total: 220 pts
eta: correct point total - I can add, honest!
In Post 473 Rebekah wrote: "10.9 Nobel PrizeSteppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (1946)
Review
I’ve decided I’m not “intelligentsia” enough for this high brow, philosophizing stream of conscious type o..."
I'm so sorry, Rebekah. This book is a YA Assignment at BPL and has no lexile. It counts for the task, but no styles.
10.5 - Goodreads AuthorSecret Shared by L. Marie Adeline
+10 task
+5 combo (10.6 - most recent work)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 235 pts
eta: correct point total - I can add, honest!
10.5 Goodreads authorizedThe Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
+10 task
+5 combo (10.2 shelved 4171 times as fantasy)
Task total: 15 points
Grand Total: 680
Hopefully I have finally managed to get a post correct.
10.8 – BINGO!: Cory (Bigler)’s task Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates takes on the famous authors Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James and Hemingway and creates fictional stories imagining events based on some aspect of their lives and writing with a similar voice. Since I just read a good amount of Poe, I definitely recognized the voice in that story. My favorite story was about Emily Dickinson going to live with a husband and wife as a robot called a RepliLuxe. Poetry was a part of the story, but it was the idea of the RepliLuxe and the humor in the story that I loved. "Grandpa Clemens" was a bit creepy and I would like to read more of the facts of his life to find out how much was exaggeration and how much was "truth". I thought the last two stories were well written, but although I thought the last one on Hemingway captured his writing voice, it was just all dark and not very appealing. Taken as a whole, though, it was a strong collection.
+10 Task: NIGhts aBOut
+10 Combo: 10.3 Edgar Allan Poe / 10.7 – Keep it Short (Pen Faulkner Author)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 975
20.2 - PicaresqueThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
+20 task
+10 oldies
Post total: 30
Grand total: 135
Task 10.5 - Goodreads authorized: Read a book written by a goodreads author.Secrets of a Summer Night (Wallflowers #1) (2004) by Lisa Kleypas (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 274 pages)
Review:This novel was designed to be a lighthearted romance! It is the first of a series. The premise: there are 4 young women who are searching for husbands. For various reasons, each of the 4 have been unsuccessful. At balls and dances, these 4 inevitably wind up as wallflowers, standing to the side whilst others dance. Near the end of the season, they begin to talk with each other. They decide to join forces and help each other find appropriate husbands. Each book in the series focuses on one of the 4 “wallflowers”. (There’s a 5th book too, a Christmas special, set sometime after the 4 have married.) This the first installment focuses on Annabelle. (Love that name!) Annabelle’s gentile family has become impoverished following the death of her father. She has no dowry and no title. The nouveau riche American sisters (Bowman girls) provide her with new gowns, and use their influence to have all 4 “wallflowers” invited to a houseparty (where the majority of the novel takes place).
Overall, this novel was a pleasant way to pass the time. That said, I would have liked a bit more clever repartee. Recommended to romance readers.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 390 + 20 = 410
TtPR Seafarer15.4 Peru
The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa (A,B,C)
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 425
TtPR Seafarer15.5 Chile
The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 450
TtPR Seafarer15.5 Australia: A&C
The Tax Inspector by Peter Carey
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total:25
Grand Total: 1010
20.5 - DisturbingThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
+20 Task (shelved as "disturbing" 6 times)
+10 Oldies (1886)
Task total=30
Grand total=625
I'd never read this book, and had no idea how good it is!
10.1 - Reading Resolutions #1Across The Barricades by Joan Lingard
+10 task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 105
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "In Post 473 Rebekah wrote: "10.9 Nobel PrizeSteppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (1946)
Review
I’ve decided I’m not “intelligentsia” enough for this high brow, philosophizin..."
Sorry, I didn't even check. I'll change my post so I can keep track of my score
20.4 - Travel:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
This is a book that is hard to classify -- some libraries have it in nonfiction - journalism, some in biography, and some in fiction. The book describes a couple of drug-crazed trips Thompson took in Vegas while supposedly on assignment for Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone. Given some of the incidents hinted at (the narrative being too disconnected to actually describe most events), I hope the book is fiction. Overall, I found this to be a wonderful train-wreck of a book -- you're appalled, but you can't look away. The excess portrayed here by Thompson is so... excessive that instead of being horrifying, it becomes humorous.
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.10, 20.2, 20.5, 20.6)
+10 Not a novel
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (1971)
Task Total: 65 points
Grand Total: 255 points
20.10 - Between the Wars:Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
At times difficult to read, at others oddly compelling. The novel tells the story of a legendary Zulu leader who with brutality and genius subdued the nearby peoples and created the nation of Zulu. In many ways, the novel reads like non-fiction (actually it reads like Wikipedia) -- events and actions are noted, but until the last chapter there is little attempt at portraying Chaka's interior, not even by describing his facial expressions or actions that would lead the reader to infer his mental state. There is also little to no description of the land. It is only the sorcery and the use of witchcraft that reminds the reader this is a work of fiction.
+20 task (born 1876)
+10 oldies (pub. 1925)
+10 review
Task total: 40 points
Grand Total: 295 points
20.3 - Post-Colonial: read a book written by one of the post-colonial writers on the linked list.Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 1/11/14
Margaret Atwood is on the linked list.
Review:
Oryx and Crake is a dystopian science fiction novel, well written by Margaret Atwood. Readers who are fans of this genre will likely love this book. I liked it well enough, but it’s really not my style, hence the three star rating.
(view spoiler)
Combo: 10.5 - Margaret Atwood is a Goodreads Author
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.5)
+10 Review
Task total: 35 points
TtPR Total: 115
RwS Total: = 540
Grand Total: 655
10.7 - Keep it Short: Read a short story collection by an author that has won the PEN/Malamud Award.Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories by Alice Munro 1/12/14
Alice Munro won the PEN/Malamud Award in 1997.
Review:
I loved Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories, written by Alice Munro! This is a collection of nine stories that could easily have been drawn from the lives of my family and acquaintances, or even my own. Each features a central female character reacting to a critical juncture in her life. How do you deal with family rivalry, the loves of our childhood, infidelity, death from various causes, and the problems of aging? Alice Munro deals with each of these issues and more in what I consider the best book of short stories I’ve ever read. Granted, I tend to like very long novels and haven’t read many short story anthologies, but I look forward to reading more in the future. After reading this book, I can appreciate why Alice Munro was honored with the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Combo: 10.9 - Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.9)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel - This is a collection of nine short stories.
Task total: 35 points
TtPR Total: 115
RwS Total: = 575
Grand Total: 690
Karen GHHS wrote: "10.8 – BINGO!: Cory (Bigler)’s task Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates t..."
Karen GHHS wrote: "10.8 – BINGO!: Cory (Bigler)’s task
Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates t..."
I'd love to read this book! I'm practically an obsessive stalker of dead authors. Twain's homes in Mo and Ct are almost like home to me! After reading A Moveable Feast it made me interested in that little gang of authors lost in the generation and looking in Paris. Thanks for sharing the review on this!
Sam wrote: "20.2 - PicaresqueThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
+20 task
+10 oldies
Post total: 30
Grand total: 135"
One of my all time favorites!
20.3 Post-colonialJuly's People by Nadine Gordimer
Published in 1981 during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, Nadine Gordimer imagines a civil war where blacks overthrow whites. It's a fictional time of terrible violence where whites have to go into hiding to avoid being killed in Johannesburg. The Smales, a liberal white couple with three children, have employed July for fifteen years as a servant. They have treated him well so he takes the family to his rural black village to keep them safe.
In the village, a master/servant role reversal occurs where the Smales are now totally dependent on July for everything--their hut, their food, even their lives. July slowly loses his subservient attitude, and the Smales feel powerless and vulnerable. Having the keys to the vehicle, a yellow bakkie, symbolizes who has the power. In addition, the Smales had the problem of not understanding the language and culture of the village. Of course, July and other blacks had been experiencing the reverse problem when they went into the cities to work for English-speaking whites.
The ending was ambivalent which disappointed me in the sense of not having closure. But it was probably a very fitting and realistic ending for that time in South Africa. No one knew what the racial tensions would bring while ending apartheid.
+20 task
+ 5 oldie (pub 1981)
+ 5 combo (10.9 Nobel prize author)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Grand total: 490
20.5Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Ok, at first I started reading this book because I despised it without merit. I had decided that hating on the book that started off as smutty Twilight fan fiction wasn’t fair, even if I do refuse to read Twilight on principle. Vampires don't sparkle, dammit. Now, I have to say it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure – not in that it is rather graphic and centered on BDSM, but in that it’s a horridly written tawdry romance novel. The author has a habit of repeating descriptive phrases and her style could use some work, but all in all, it’s actually a pretty readable piece of smut. I’ve read MUCH worse. And if you want something easy to read and not too intense (for those of us who actually know about the scene beforehand), it’s not bad. Hey, I liked it just for the ideas. ;-)
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.5 - goodreads author)
task total: 35
grand total: 775
Heather wrote: "20.2 - Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser seriesSwords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Swords and Deviltry is the first of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series by Fritz Lieber...."
Question for the Mods: I just found out that this is indeed not a novel, but a series of short stories. do I get the +10 for not-a-novel as well?
20.5 – Disturbing:UnWholly by Neal Shusterman
In Unwind, Neal Shusterman created an interesting and frightening future world in which parents could elect to “unwind” their 16 year old child. This meant that the teen would live on in a “divided state” or in other words their body parts would be divided among others who needed an organ or an eye and was more worthy of this than the unwound teen. Needless to say, not everyone agrees with this process and not every teen selected for unwinding goes quietly to his or her fate. Shusterman continues the story of three main characters from Unwind in Unwholly. Connor, Lev and Risa find themselves in different strange circumstances at the beginning of the book. Shusterman’s writing keeps you turning the pages. The narrative is interspersed with news reports which I find an effective technique that keeps the reader aware of the public attitude while reading the stories of individuals. Unwholly is not quite as good as Unwind, but it takes a lot for me to like book 2 in a trilogy as much as the first book. I’m waiting anxiously to read book 3!
+20 Task: 5 shelvings, 860 L
+ 5 Combo: 10.5 Goodreads Authorized
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 1045
15.5 TtPR "Seafarer"Australia-A&B
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 500
15.6 TtPR "Seafarer"New Zealand-A&B
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 525
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
A Dance with Dragons (other topics)Tracks (other topics)
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Third Stop
Cambodia
A/ Author born in Cambodia
C/ Novel set in Cambodia
In the Shadow of the Banyan (2010) by Vaddey Ratner
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 15 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 365 + 25 = 390