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Winter 13/14 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 13/14
Kate S wrote: "Rosemary wrote: " not sure, I think something has gone wrong with my spreadsheet :( "I am so sorry, Rosemary. I hope you can get this figured out. If it helps, I show your total through post 600 as 935"
Yes that helps thank you, and that plus 60 from post 619 should be 995, but for some reason my spreadsheet is only showing 965. Well I will just add the 30 as a correction and then it should be okay :)
20.8 – Disastrous Reading:Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker, 1100 Lexile
Blizzard of Glass is a blend of reporting and first hand accounts of the Halifax Explosion of 1917. The writing is straight forward and pictures from the time period are included. This disaster is less well known than others, but no less horrific. Halifax had to process many bodies after the explosion that destroyed their town and they had sadly had practice as the closest city to the Titanic when it so famously went down. Schools were brought down to skeletons and many children lost their lives. Survivors who shared their stories made this account possible and many showed great courage as the disaster unfolded. This was a fascinating book about a sad moment in Canadian history.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 – BINGO! (BlIzzard Of Glass explsioN)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 1200
TtPR – Aviator15.1 (1st Stop): United States
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
+15 task (A + B)
Task total: 15 points
Grand Total: 855
TtPR Seafarer15.8 Eighth Stop - China A, C
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min 1/24/14
+15 Task
+10 Seafarer Bonus
Task total: 25 points
TtPR Total: 190
RwS Total: = 640
Grand Total: 830
20.5 DisturbingHeart of Darkness and the Congo Diary by Joseph Conrad
+20 Task (MPE includes the Congo Diary, and this title is no longer listed separately)
+ 5 Combo (20.6) Best 20th Century List, but pub 1899 - go figure
+10 oldies
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 405
10.6 Beginnings/EndingsThe Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
"The Rosie Project" is a very humorous romance written from a male character's point of view. Australian Professor Don Tillman is off the charts in terms of intelligence, but has a hard time with personal interactions. He's not quick to pick up on verbal and facial social clues due to Asperger's. Most of the humor revolves around Don's inept behavior with women, but the genetics professor is also presented as an intelligent, handsome guy with a good social conscience. He decides to make a questionnaire to filter out unsuitable women in his search for a wife, and calls it the Wife Project. When he meets Rosie, a bartender who contacts him for genetics advice in tracking down her biological father, he agrees to take on a new task--the Father Project. Rosie does not meet the requirements of his questionnaire, but he has the best days of his life when he's with her.
Although Don is presented as a stereotypical person with Asperger's for the sake of humor, there is also a chapter when he lectures about the syndrome noting, "Asperger's isn't a fault. It's a variant. It's potentially a major advantage. Asperger's syndrome is associated with organization, focus, innovative thinking, and rational detachment."
As I was reading the book, I was thinking what a great movie or situation comedy "The Rosie Project" would be. So I was pleased to see on the last page that the author's screen adaptation has been optioned by Sony Pictures. The book is engaging, heartwarming, and humorous.
+10 task (most recent book)
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 635
10.1 - Reading Resolutions Read more translated works
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter by Anonymous
This book is lovely! It contains a modern Japanese rewriting by Yasunari Kawabata, gorgeous illustrations by Masayuki Miyata, and a translation by Donald Keene.
It is an old, old story that may have been written as satire, but now reads like a fairy tale. The Old Bamboo Cutter finds a tiny girl in a stalk of Bamboo and brings her home to his wife. The tiny girl grows into a beautiful young woman and all the young men seek out her home, hoping for a glimpse of her beauty. The Bamboo Cutter, now very old, urges her to marry. To appease him, she agrees -- but only to the man that successfully completes an impossible task.....
+10 task
+10 review
+25 oldies (published before 900)
Task total: 45 points
Grand Total: 340 points
TtPR Seafarer15.9 Ninth Stop - Japan A, B, C
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 1/25/14
+15 Task
+10 Seafarer Bonus
Task total: 25 points
TtPR Total: 215
RwS Total: = 640
Grand Total: 855
20.9 Daytona 500Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Lexile 880
+20 task (734 pages)
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.8)
+10 Jumbo
Task total: 40 points
Grand Total: 895
TtPR Seafarer15.10 Tenth and Final Stop - Russia A, B, C
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1/25/14
This completes my Seafarer Journey around the Pacific Rim!
+15 Task
+10 Seafarer Bonus
Task total: 25 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus: 100
RwS Total: 640
Grand Total: 980
Congratulations Theresa! :)10.1 Reading Resolutions
Amongst Women by John McGahern
Review:
A little gem of a character study of an Irish family, dominated by the father, Michael Moran, who is known to his grown children and his second wife as "Daddy". His daughters and wife are at once adoring and afraid of him; his sons are less impressed.
Moran has a very strong sense of his own importance that stems partly from inheritance and partly from his own past glory in the Irish War of Independence. However, there's very little about the war. The story begins 25-30 years later.
It's a deceptively gentle book and the writing has an incisive spareness to it that I thought was just brilliant.
+10 task (borrowed from my parents)
+10 review
Task total: 20 points
Grand total: 1015
10.5.. Goodreads authorized:
11/22/63 Stephen KingThis is my first Stephen Kings novel. I have heard about his creations but I always thought that he writes mostly short stories about mystery and horror. I was wrong and I am glad that I was because I discovered a great writer and tons of his novels to read in nearest future.
I enjoyed this particular novel and was amazed with authors ability to keep things suspense all of the time. Even when there was no real action I kept feeling thrilled during almost whole novel. The idea was marvellous - so original and the way it was realised pleased me. The whole concept of time travel has been used so many times that I thought it would be such a cliche but it wasn't. King made the whole plot somehow unique - the man with the card, the whole ''every time is a first time'' thing and surprising effect after saving the JFK - it was really twisted and unexpected. I waited for the ending during all novel only because I wanted to know the butterfly effect on future world but otherwise I was sad when novel ended - mostly because of lack of happy ending. I expected for it and was rather disappointed when it didn't happened. But as I know it is not Kings thing - all the big love and romance. And it wasn't the main theme of the novel. Sadly, I missed this thing - it would made a perfect ending. But as far - I enjoyed every chapter, every word and I am happy that I started reading this novel.
+10 - Task
+10 - review
+5 - Combo (20.9.)
+15 - Jumbo (849 p.)
Task total: 40 Points
Grand total:80 points
10.1 - Reading Resolutions Read more translated works
Reveries of the Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This was a lot less entertaining than his Confessions, possibly because there was more abstract philosophizing and less of an autobiographical focus. It was also the last thing Rousseau wrote, and it is incomplete. It definitely suffered from a complete lack of explanatory notes for this lay person that has no philosophy background. What is fascinating about reading Rousseau is that he was a little bit nuts, so reading his autobiographical writings, I am always wondering how much of the portrayal of events is his paranoia/persecution complex and how much is an accurate portrayal of the very real campaign against him and his writings.
It did reinforce my belief that Rousseau was an unreliable narrator. There was less crazy on display, but it leaked out once in a while. For example, on one of his walks he meets a small child from a nearby farm that greets him with the complete enthusiasm of the very young. After spending some minutes with the child, he goes to chat with the father, "I was ready to quit the child to go speak to {the father} when I saw I had been forestalled by a man of evil look, who appeared to me to be one of these spies who follow my track incessantly...." Another example is his reaction on coming upon a factory unexpectedly: "For I felt quite sure that there were perhaps not two men in this factory who were not initiated into the plot which the preacher Montmollin had headed against me..."
+10 task
+5 combo (10.5 - First & Last)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
+15 oldies (pub. 1782)
Task total: 50 points
Grand Total: 390 points
10.5 - Goodreads authorizedStill Alice by Lisa Genova
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.6 - debut book)
Task total=15
Grand total=755
TtPR – Seafarer15.2 (second stop): USA
The Wedding Bargain by Victoria Alexander (Alexander was born in the USA and is American)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 400
20.10 Born 1866-1913The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (820 Lexile)
Review: This is a book I wish I’d discovered as a kid. It’s a delightful story about a family of precocious children living in New York City during World War II, and had I found it (not been given it, because I refused to read anything suggested to me by adults as a kid…) when I was younger I think the series would have become one of my favorites. I love the idea of kids going out to have adventures by pooling their allowances, but finding that the things they had the most fun with were not the things they paid for. I also love the idea of being a kid and having Manhattan at your disposal!
+20 Task (born 1909)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (published 1941)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 435
TtPR – Seafarer15.3 (third stop): Mexico
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
(born in Mexico, Mexican, set in Mexico) (1030 Lexile)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 460
TtPR – Seafarer15.4 (fourth stop): Chile
By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 485
10.3 Detective FictionVisions in Death by J.D. Robb
Review: This is the nineteenth in the “In Death” series, so if you want to understand the character development, don’t start here. Each story is relatively standalone, though. As usual, Eve Dallas has to solve a murder, and in this case a particularly gruesome one has occurred. Robb shifts perspectives in a way that I always have to get used to, but in this case she actually surprised me a little with her ending. As usual, there is a decent amount of character investigation and development, mostly for Eve and her partner Peabody, which is what keeps me coming back to these books. They’re comfortable and interesting and I know that Eve will always get the bad guy in the end, learning just a little more about herself in the process.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 505
TtPR – Seafarer15.5 (fifth stop): New Zealand
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy (born in New Zealand, New Zealander, set in New Zealand) (Lexile 1030)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 530
20.9 BIG BooksThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
+20 Task (552 pg)
Lexile 730 – no style points
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 550
10.5 Goodreads AuthorThe Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente (Lexile 950)
Review: When I finished the first book in this series, I hugged it. When I finished the second, I wasn’t as thrilled, but definitely smiled. Sadly, this third one disappointed me. The first half of it plodded along with little glimmers of the fun of the first two books.
September is on the precipice of young adulthood, having just turned thirteen. The book opens in Nebraska, where she is worried she’s growing too old to travel back to Fairyland as she was promised. When she basically forces her way in, her adventures don’t take off the way they have in the past. She isn’t welcomed in, she doesn’t immediately have a task, and despite her feeling more grown up, she’s not comfortable in that role.
There is whimsy in these books – the language is playful, yet not light – and I expect this book is more awkward because September is at an awkward stage in life. Unfortunately, I think I want her to stay a child forever, or else maybe grow up more quickly! Hopefully the next one will be a little more satisfying.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 570
TtPR – Seafarer15.6 (sixth stop): Australia
Darkness Devours by Keri Arthur (Born in Australia, Australian, set in Australia)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 595
TtPR - Seafarer15.6 (sixth stop): Australia
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
(A, B, and C)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 590
20.10 - Between the Wars: Read a book written by an author born between the Civil War and WWI (1866-1913). My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 1/26/14
Daphne du Maurier was born in 1907.
Review:
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier is a wonderful read for those who love Gothic mysteries and thrillers. From early in the novel through to the end, the reader is given conflicting clues as to whether Rachel is a villain or merely a woman misunderstood due to the circumstances in which she is placed. (view spoiler) My first introduction to Daphne du Maurier was when I read and loved Rebecca as a teenager. Recently I re-read that book, followed by Frenchman’s Creek. I love the author’s style, both in her storylines and her use of language. I look forward to reading more of her works.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1951)
Task total: 35 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus 100
RwS Total: = 675
Grand Total: 1015
10.10 Group ReadsThe Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski
Review:
Devastatingly beautiful prose and some amazing character studies.
The thing about this book is that it's not only about the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, which obviously was a tragedy but is the subject of many other works too. This book also looks at the non-Jewish Polish people and even the German occupiers during the Second World War, showing how each person had an effect on the lives of the others. And in the end it's really about Poland and whether it can exist as an independent nation, which was just about to happen when this was first published in 1986.
I am very grateful to Liz for nominating this book as a group read. I might not have read it otherwise and am very glad that I did :)
+10 task
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (pub. 1986)
Task total: 25 points
Grand total: 1040 adjusted to 1035 to fit with Readerboard
TtPR Seafarer15.7 (7th stop) Cambodia A & C
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1225
From Post 630Coralie wrote: "20.9 Daytona 500
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Lexile 880
+20 task (734 pages)
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.8)
+10 Jumbo
Task total: 40 points
Grand Total: 895"
+5 Combo 20.6 (#438 on the list)
TtPR - Seafarer15.5 (5th stop): Australia
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 450 points
Task 10.6 - Beginnings/Endings: Read an author's most recently published book as of December 1, 2013.
Longbourn (2013) by Jo Baker (Hardcover, 352 pages)
Review:We’ve all read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. That, at least, is the assumption the author made before writing Longbourn. This is the story of the servants at the Bennett’s house. The author includes every scrap of a mention of a servant in Austen’s story. She then adds historical information about the duties and behavior of Napoleonic-era servants. And, to keep the reader’s interest, she includes a love triangle centered on one of the Bennett’s housemaids (Sarah).
I liked the IDEA of this novel more than the actual novel. There were many, many passages like this one on p. 123: “The house was in a flurry all afternoon, and Sarah, as she finished curling Kitty’s hair, could have wept with the pain from her chilblains: they throbbed red and tight, and grew worse each time she crouched to heat the hair irons at the fire.”
Overall, the novel was good but could have been better.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 615 + 20 = 635
20.5 DisturbingWorld War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Review:
World War Z is not about zombies...not really. It is more about humankind, about its societies, about its military, about its struggle - about its people. The book consists of stories told in retrospect by individuals who survived. They tell their stories and with it the story of the "Zombie War". The story unfolds more or less chronological, starting with the first sightings in China. Since it's told in retrospect the reader gets bits of information about the postwar world as well and early on a sense of the magnitude of the "war".
There is no character development on the long run, but you get an insight into the individual storytellers - and the zombie's characteristics: What they can do, and what they can't do.
The book is brilliantly written and draws the reader in right from the beginning. Because of the book's set-up as an eye-witness report, it makes the events sound more "real" more "possible to happen", which makes it even more scary! Nicely done!
+20 task (8x shelved as "disturbing")
+ 5 combo (10.5 goodreads author)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 145
20.5 DisturbingFlowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
As I started the first page of 'Flowers in the Attic' I was taken back to my teen years and I could actually remember reading those words for the first time, many moons ago (roughly 20 years LOL).
Man, V.C.Andrews just grabs you right away, as soon as I read the first few words all I wanted to know was why they considered themselves 'flowers in the attic; Paper Flowers.' We are taken on this journey with Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Corey and we are forced to feel everything they go through and there is really no way to escape, just as an escape to them feels impossible.
It really is a beautifully told story how love, friendship and family can conquer all including each other in every sense of the word. What those children went through is heart wrenching and inspires soul searching. I have decided to re-read the entire series and I really cannot wait to continue in the world of the Dollanganger's.
+20 Task (30x shelved)
+10 review
+5 oldies (1979)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 235
TtPRAviator
Stop Nop. 6 is Chile. I read Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende.
Points this Post: 15
Grand Total: 90
TtPRAviator
Stop No. 7 is Columbia. I read The Dark Bride by Laura Restrepo.
Points This Post: 15
Grand Total: 105
Arow wrote: "20.5 DisturbingFlowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
As I started the first page of 'Flowers in the Attic' I was taken back to my teen years and I could actually rem..."
There is a movie version. The most recent was made by lifetime. I didn't think the lifetime movie was that good. The older version was better. I read this book when I was 13.
Nick wrote: "TtPRAviator
Stop Nop. 6 is Chile. I read Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende.
Points this Post: 15
Grand Total: 90"
I forgot to add the 10 Bonus Points for every book after the 5th on the TtPR.
Points This Post: 25
Grand Total 100
Nick wrote: "TtPRAviator
Stop No. 7 is Columbia. I read The Dark Bride by Laura Restrepo.
Points This Post: 15
Grand Total: 105"
I forgot to add the 10 bonus points for every book after the 5th.
Points this Post: 25
Grand Total: 125
I hope I've corrected this correctly.
20.5 - DisturbingNever Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
+20 Task (shelved as disturbing 23 times)
Task total=20
Grand total=775
TtPR Seafarer15.1 - New Zealand
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame
Qualifies for A,B & C
Task total - 15 pts
Grand Total - 510 pts
10.3 Edgar Allan PoeThe Ides of April by Lindsey Davis
+10 task
Task total: 10 points
Grand Total: 910
Phoebe wrote: "20.5 DisturbingWorld War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Review
+20 task (8x shelved as "disturbing")
+ 5 combo (10.5 goodreads author)
+10 revie..."
Phoebe, please include the test of your review in the post rather than linking it. It makes it much easier on the scorekeepers. Thanks!
20.5 DisturbingBlindness by José Saramago
+20 task (shelved 14 times as disturbing)
+10 Combo (10.9, 20.6)
Task total: 30 points
Grand Total: 940
10.6 - Beginnings/EndingsThe Salinger Contract by Adam Langer
+10 Task (most recent book)
Task total=10
Grand total=785
20.6. 20th C: Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García MárquezThis is my second G.G.Marquez book. The first one was "The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor" and although I finished it easily, it didn't fully satisfied me. Luckily it didn't stop me from reading "Love in time of cholera" and I am so glad that I started it. I was so impressed that my only motivation to finish this amazing novel was my curiosity about the finale of this hearth warming love story but apart from this - I wish I could read it forever. I adore this novel - now I can surely state that I have my favorite novel and this one will be the first book that I will read again and again and I will buy it in hard cover to leave it for my children.
I am stunned with this double love story and although it is written calm and steady it is full with passion and sometimes it even seemed somehow erotic and tensed. Two love stories full with poetic romance and in the same time so realistic - filled with domestic, rustic everyday life details. That is what makes this novel so great - it's is not some sweet candy-like soap-opera story but something real and rough - something that could happen to everyone and with nobody at the same time.
While reading it, I listened to Caribbean native music and some old fashioned Latino love songs - it created the perfect atmosphere for connection with this novel.
It is perfect! I suggest everyone in every age - read it! Read it to dream of future love, read it to remember your youth, read it to feel the breath of old fashioned love - when men were men and woman were woman, when people wrote love letters, where young ladies blushed after secret eye contacts, when everything felt different. Read it because it will change you - maybe just for the time you'll spent over book. And the most important - read it to understand that real love is eternal, it's beyond sex, beyond life - it is never too late to unite with your soul mate... So never loose hope!
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.9.)
+5 Oldies (1967)
Task Total - 40 Points
Grand Total - 120 Points
15.3 Columbia SeafarerMemories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez
I liked this book although the language was maybe a little too flowery and I feel like I missed part of the narrative.
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25 points
Grand Total: 440 points
10.9 Nobel PrizeThe Burnt Ones by Patrick White
+10 task (1973 Nobel Prize winner)
+15 Combo (20.1 – published 1964, 20.3, 20.10 – born 1912)
+5 Oldies
+10 Not a Novel (short stories)
Task total: 40 points
Grand Total: 980
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Reading with Style
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I am so sorry, Rosemary. I hope you can get this figured out. If it helps, I show your total through post 600 as 935.