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Winter 13/14 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 13/14
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Kate S wrote: "From Post 1033Connie wrote: "20.7 Group Reads Redux
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Stevens, an aging butler at Darlington Hall near Oxford, takes a trip thr..."
Thanks for the extra combo points, Kate.
20.9 Daytona 500The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Review
I keep forgetting that even though the 18th century was many generations ago, it was quite a bawdy and rowdy time. Like Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne uses imaginative sarcasm, puns and jokes to make for a laugh out loud comedy. Sterne’s meandering story as told by the title character, addresses the reader directly often referring to the reader as Sir or Madam. During his telling of the story, he continually justifies to the reader why he skips around or why he describes a scene thus or why a certain character acts as he does. He also uses the actual physical writing as a tool to explain. A page that is nothing but a big black blank on either side is his interpretation of death. High German Gothic font is used in certain phrases of a legal document to give more weight. He uses squiggles, asterix, plus signs etc. to “illustrate” his book via the type printing. Is this perhaps one of the prototypes for the first graphic novel?
+20 pts - Task
+ 5 pts - Jumbo (588 pgs)
+ 5 pts - Combo (20.2 picaresque)
+ 10 pts - Review
+20 pts - Oldies (1759)
Task Total - 60 pts
Grand Total - 1570 pts
I'm hoping I can finish both my audio book and physical book before the deadline. I'm telling myself I have 10 extra hours since I'm on this side of the world. (smile)
10.8 - BINGOA Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
+10 Task (A Kiss Before Dying)
+ 5 Combo (10.6 - debut)
+ 5 Oldies (1953)
Task total=20
Grand total=1195
Thanks for the 5 points, Kate!20.3 – Post-Colonial:
Moral Disorder: and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
+20 Task: author on list
+ 5 Combo: 10.5 - Goodreads Authorized
+10 Not a Novel: short stories
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 2075
10.5 – Goodreads authorized:Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
+10 Task
Grand Total: 2085
20.9 – Daytona 500: Elizabeth (Alaska)’s taskCress by Marissa Meyer
+20 Task: 550 pages
+ 5 Combo: 10.5 - Goodreads Authorized
+ 5 Jumbo
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 2115
Karen, how did your score go down? I'm watching you read up a storm and fully expect to see you win this one!
Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Karen, how did your score go down? I'm watching you read up a storm and fully expect to see you win this one!"That would be my addition which I just edited ;) !
20.9 Daytona 500The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Review:
I had not listened to an audiobook in years. I decided to get back into it and this was my choice. It took me two months to listen to all 32 hours, but it was worth it. I'm not sure if it was the narrator or the story, but I really got into it. I was able to remember things and follow along even when a week would go by when I did not listen.
The story focuses on Theo Decker. Early on in the book, a tragic event takes place that puts into motion the events that Theo goes through in his teen and early adult years. It is sad at first, but lightens up a bit when he moves to Las Vegas. There he meets Boris who he feels an immediate kinship. Once again I don't know if it was the narrator, but I loved Boris' character! It could have been the Ukrainian accent or the characterization, but my favorite parts of the book were when Theo and he were together.
I wish I would have been able to listen to the book in a shorter amount of time. I probably will read it in the future.
+20 Task
+5 Combo(10.6-most recent)
+10 Review
+10 Jumbo (771 pages)
Task Total = 45 points
Grand Total = 580 points
20.9 Daytona 500Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam by Mark Bowden
I admit that I mostly became interested in this book after seeing the movie "Argo" (which I also liked). But I stayed interested in this book once I had a taste of the style and got caught up in the fascinating story. The book relates the story of the Iran hostage crisis, told with a terrific amount of well-chosen detail and a lively writing style. I felt, after reading, like I had a much better picture of the scenario, possible responses, and so on -- and I had much more sympathy with the position the U.S. was in as far as responding. The hostage crisis wrapped up when I was a baby, so I don't remember it personally, but I definitely remember hearing about it from my parents when I was older and hearing it referred to. I didn't know all the nuance that I learned from reading this book. To me, one of the best tests of a nonfiction book is where it leaves me -- for me, this book was 5 stars because it left me trying to read just a bit longer on the way to work, and considering whether I had time after work to stop at a bookstore to look for other books on the topic.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (non-fiction)
+5 jumbo (680 pages)
Task total: 45 points
Grand Total: 375
20.6 - 20th C: Read one of the top 500 Best Books of the 20th Century .Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez 2/27/14
This book is #48 on the list.
Lexile 1440
Review:
Love in the Time of Cholera is based on a simple theme. A man in his youth falls in love with a woman who marries another man. He spends the next 50 years loving her and hoping for the chance that there may yet come a day when they can be together. What makes the book special is the story the author weaves about the lives of Florentino Ariza, his beloved Fermina Daza, and her husband, Dr. Juvenal Urbino. The reader gets the flavor of the Columbian culture and a story of love, lust, family, and society. This beautifully woven tale helps one to appreciate why the author, Gabriel García Márquez, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 - Nobel Laureate in Literature)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (published 1967)
Task total: 40 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus 100
RwS Total: = 1310
RwS Bonus: 100
Mega Bonus: 200
Grand Total: 1950
In post 714: Liz M wrote: "10.1 - Reading ResolutionsRead more translated works
The Dark Child by Camara Laye..."
I'm moving this book to 10.6 - Beginnings/Endings
Task total: -5 points
10.1 - Reading ResolutionsRead more translated works
Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
The story of Rituals is told by Inni Wintrop, a man with enough money to float through life dabbling in a handful of ad hoc professions. Through family and work he first encounters Arnold Taads, a former champion skier, deeply unhappy, who has regimented every minute of every day in order to avoid living in them. Many years later Inni meets Philip Taads, the son Arnold never acknowledged. Philip leads an austere, timeless existence attempting to efface himself in meditation and the purity of tea ceremony.
Although the plot may seem, well, rather plot-less, I found the book to be completely enthralling. The language is exquisite and the thoughts on the nature of existence were mostly handled with a light touch -- not overly academic or preachy, but blended into the narrator's thoughts without becoming a 20-page treatise. I cannot begin to explain how mesmerizing I found this novella.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 oldies (pub. 19800
Task total: 25 points
Grand Total 650 points
20.6 - 20th C: Read one of the top 500 Best Books of the 20th Century .The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 2/27/14
This book is #5 on the list.
Lexile 1070
Review:
I first read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald when it was assigned reading in high school. I believe I read it again when I was in my 20s, but that was quite some time ago. Earlier this month I read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, which left me wanting to read and/or re-read the works of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as their biographies.
Today I re-read The Great Gatsby and found I enjoyed it as much as I had the first two times. I was surprised, though, at how much I had forgotten. First, it’s a much shorter book than I’d remembered, hence my being able to read it before and after work in a single day. Then there were the nuances in the tale that I’d forgotten, so it was quite a pleasure to read and remember. I’ve seen the Robert Redford movie, and after this re-read, I think I’ll watch the Leonardo DiCaprio version when it comes to cable.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.10 - author born in 1896)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (published 1925)
Task total: 45 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus 100
RwS Total: = 1355
RwS Bonus: 100
Mega Bonus: 200
Grand Total: 1995
Task 20.4 - TravelOn February 26, 2014this book was #63 on the list: Favourite Travel Books.
Tracks (1980) by Robyn Davidson (Paperback, 256 pages)
Winner: 1980 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for best literary travel writing book of the year
Review:The cover of my book states: “In April 1977, a twenty-seven-year-old woman set off to cross the rugged bush of her native Australia, accompanied only by four camels and a dog.” She published an account of her trip across the Outback in National Geographic; later, she wrote this book. She is not introspective, except to say, repeatedly, how this journey was liberating and how this journey gave her a sense of freedom. The first half of the book is about the author’s time in Alice Springs, Australia, wherein she learns about camels. The second half is about her trip. She will walk for a few days, then stop at missionary locations for a few days, and spend time with the white missionaries and the aborigines. The photographer from National Geographic flies in, takes a car and joins her for a few days, takes photos, then leaves. There are better photos on the internet than in the copy of the book I read. (Australia’s Ayers Rock looks amazing!) Overall: book was interesting and different, and I learned a lot about camels!
+20 Task
+05 Combo (10.6 - debut book)
+10 Review
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1939-1989)
Task Total: 20 +05 + 10 + 05 = 40
Grand Total: 1000 + 40 = 1040
20.10 Between the WarsDon't Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford
+20 task (born 1904)
+ 5 oldies (1960)
Task total: 25 points
Grand total: 1735
That's it from me for this season. Thanks everybody and especially the mods for another fantastic challenge!
10.6you Ruined It for Everyone!: 101 People Who Screwed Things Up for the Rest of Us by Matthew Vincent
+10 task
+10 not a novel
task total: 20
grand total: 1870
and that's it for me this time around!
20.6 - 20th CRevolutionary Road by Richard Yates
+20 Task (#201 on list)
+ 5 Combo (10.6 - debut)
+ 5 Oldies (1961)
Task total=30
Grand total=1225
20.7 - Group Reads ReduxThe Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I've already read two other books by Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth) and didn't enjoy those. Ethan Frome, while being the better of the two, was too short for me to really get into the story and House of Mirth featured a main character with whom I just couldn't sympathize, which is always a bad sign in a book.
Thus my expectations for The Age of Innocence were quite low. However, the book surprised me favourably. In late 19th century New York Newland Archer is betrothed to May Welland. Archer's devotion to May is put to the test when May's cousin Ellen Olenska arrives in town after leaving her husband. Archer feels an instant attraction to her, but Ellen is still married and Archer is bound by his word to May.
This book draws a vivid portrait of the time and the society with believable characters. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Laural Merlington and enjoyed every minute of it. This makes me even wonder whether I should re-read Whaton's other books one day and find out whether I was just not in the mood for them at the time or whether they are really not as good as The Age of Innocence.
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Oldie
+ 10 Review
+ 5 Combo (20.6: #184)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 450
20.8 Disaster The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Hot Zone is extremely interesting. Preston does so much research and makes an effort to talk to all the people involved, even going to Africa himself. Ebola is scary. I knew ebola killed people but I didn't realize that Ebola will literally make your insides melt and bleed from every orifice. If you've ever watched Mission Impossible 2, that's essentially what ebola does to you.
The book added some nice personal touches to make the people more accessible. It tends to read more like a fiction book, the vocabulary is not too scientific and it is not simply a dry report. The first few chapters are really graphic, so not for the easily nauseated!
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 40 points
Grand Total: 635 points
20.10 Between the WarsSwords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber (born 1910)
Oftentimes, the key to the future is knowing your history; for me this is also true of genre fiction. I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, but I find that I appreciate the newer books more as I delve into the older tomes. As Fritz Leiber was partly responsible for creating the “Sword & Sorcery”-subgenre (a phrase he coined) with his dynamic duo of Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser whose origins are chronicled in “Sword and Deviltry”, it seemed like a good book to delve into.
The book consists of a vignette and three short stories, of which two tell the respective background stories for Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and the third relates how they meet in the city of Lankhmar and become a team. I wish I’d started with a story further into their collaboration as the first two stories simply aren’t that interesting. Also, the female characters are very one dimensional: They’re either witches who want to keep their sons at home, seductive actresses or timid and naïve noblewomen. However, when the two friends attempt to infiltrate the local thieves’ guild, the story picks up and becomes the swashbuckling adventure I was looking for.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.2)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
+5 Oldies
Task total: 50 pts
Grand total: 380 pts
15.1 TtPR (Seafarer)Vietnam: The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam by Bảo Ninh (A,B & C)
Task total: 15 pts
Grand total: 395 pts
20.3 Post ColonialThe Bone People by Keri Hulme
Review
This is a haunting story that blends into the misty coastlines of New Zealand. The trio of main characters is each an enigma individually. All have mysterious pasts and secrets that are slowly and deliciously brought to light. It is also a story of a unique Maori culture and the crossing of lines between the Europeans who came as settlers with the Maori. This is a story of their descendants now living in the late twentieth century. Author Keri Hulme’s first novel that she admits was meant to be a short story that wove itself into a much larger and richer tapestry. I think the author has put a lot of herself in this book, not only as she is a Euro Maori herself but also one of the lead characters has been named Kerewin Holmes, so much like the author’s name that at first my mind kept seeing it as Keri Hulme in the beginning. This book won a Booker and a Pegasus Prize. It richly deserved these awards. If you are a lover of literature that is sure to become a classic, read it.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Combo ( 10.6 -first novel, 20.6 - # 287)
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1988)
Task Total - 45 pts
Grand Total - 1615 pts
20.5 DisturbingBlindness by José Saramago
Review
What a scary book! This book put me in mind of other books I’ve read such as The Unit, The Stand, Lord of the Flies and mostly Andersonville, although Andersonville is based on true historical events. Unwanted people enclosed together and the key thrown away. Food is just thrown in and never is enough for the amount of inmates coming in daily. People are shot for crossing the dead zone, hygiene is lost, the place becomes a cesspool, the thugs take over making demands and holding the food hostage. You can see Saramago’s existentialism all over the place. In this environment there are still a few determined to keep their souls and they have a secret weapon, a spy who is not blind. Good story but bleak.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo (10.5 - 1998, 20.6 - #96)
+10 pts - Review
Rask Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 1655 pts
My last book for this challenge and I'm off to bed!
10.4 Chinese New YearA Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
When I finished book four in A Song of Fire and Ice, which only includes half of the characters in the series, I said I hadn't even missed reading about the omitted characters. As soon as I started reading this one, however, I realized how much I had missed them and how glad I was to read about them. As glad as I was to be caught up on what was going on up north in Westeros and East in the free cities, though, I felt the book really gathered momentum and interest half way through when the characters from Book four start becoming reintegrated into the story. Of course just when I am ready to read on, plot twists and a cliff hanger ( or two) make it that much harder to wait for the next book. Now I am caught up and I have to wait with bated breath with everyone else. . .
+10 task
+10 review
+ 15 combo (10.2, 10.6, 20.9)
+25 Jumbo (1110 pages)
Task total -60
Grand total - 615
10.9 - Nobel Prize: Read a book written by an author that has won a Nobel Prize for Literature.Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro 2/28/14
The author won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.
Review:
I have never been big on short stories, preferring to spend my reading time on long novels that I can become involved with for a while, even feeling a bit sad when I finish and can no longer look forward to the next pages of that work. Short stories have always seemed to be, well, too short for me to become absorbed in the tale.
This all changed when I decided to read the works of Alice Munro, a Canadian writer of short stories who was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her story collections are amazing! I read and loved Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories in January and decided to read Friend of My Youth this month. I am so glad I did. The author has a gift for fully developing her theme and characters in a brief 30 pages. Most are centered on the lives of women with whom I can relate, dealing with aging, cancer, family strife, infidelity, and more. One story ends and another just as interesting follows. Fortunately for me, she has published quite a few short story collections, and I hope to read them all.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.7 - author won the PEN/Malamud Award in 1997)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel (short story collection)
Task total: 35 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus 100
RwS Total: = 1390
RwS Bonus: 100
Mega Bonus: 200
Grand Total: 2030
20.5 - Disturbing: Read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .Coraline by Neil Gaiman 2/28/14
This book as been shelved as disturbing 15 times.
Lexile 740 - no style points
This was my drive-time read for this last day of the Winter RwS Challenge, finished after I got home this evening. I thought listening to Neil Gaiman was a great way to wrap this up. Great challenge!
Task total: 20 points
TtPR Total: 240
Seafarer Well Traveled Bonus 100
RwS Total: = 1410
RwS Bonus: 100
Mega Bonus: 200
Grand Total: 2050
20.10 - Between the WarsThe Counterfeiters by André Gide
I thought the first half of this novel was fantastic. It starts off with a dramatic event and gradually introduces the reader to the cast of characters and in a very Dickensian way shows the reader how all the characters' stories intersect, foreshadowing an explosive climax. One of the main characters preoccupations is the false face put on by adults in society and the deception, both conscious and unconscious, practiced in everyday society. Then, about 75 pages in, we discover that one of the seemingly minor characters, Eduoard, is working on a novel titled "The Counterfeiters", a novel depicting "the struggle between the facts presented by reality and the ideal reality", adding a delicious layer of meta-fiction. Had Gide been able to maintain the brilliant premise of the first half, this would have been a 6-star read. I loved how this novel had so many layers of reality, so many interpretations of "counterfeits". But for me, the experiment lost its effervescence by the end.
+20 task
+5 combo (10.9 - Nobel)
+10 review
+10 oldies (1925)
Task total: 45 points
Grand Total: 695 points
10.5 – Goodreads authorized:The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block
+10 Task
Grand Total: 2145
And that's it for me! Loved the challenge!
Thank you to everyone for a great challenge. We've never had over 1100 posts before and you all made it happen!
From Post 1083Karen GHHS wrote: "10.5 – Goodreads authorized:
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
+10 Task
Grand Total: 2085"
+10 Not-a-Novel
From Post 1095Deedee wrote: "Task 20.4 - Travel
On February 26, 2014this book was #63 on the list: Favourite Travel Books.
Tracks (1980) by Robyn Davidson (Paperback, 256 pages)
Winner: 1980 Thom..."
+10 Not-a-Novel
Jama wrote: "10.4 Chinese New YearA Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
When I finished book four in A Song of Fire and Ice, which only includes half of the characters in ..."
Sorry, George RR Martin has published a couple of novellas since this behemoth, this does not qualify for 10.6.
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
A Dance with Dragons (other topics)Tracks (other topics)
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (other topics)
The Frenzy (other topics)
The Counterfeiters (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
George R.R. Martin (other topics)Robyn Davidson (other topics)
Jen Campbell (other topics)
Francesca Lia Block (other topics)
André Gide (other topics)
More...
Enclave by Ann Aguirre
+10 Task
Low Lexile – no style
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 1530