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FA 2015 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2015
10.9 Six DegreesMexican White Boy by Matt de la Pena post 362
I chose to read this book because I needed a book based in my home town (San Diego) for another Good Reads book club challenge. It is a young adult novel about a talented young man, Danny, who is bi-racial. He lives with his white Mom in northern San Diego County but spends the Summer visiting his father's Mexican relatives in southern San Diego near the border. He doesn't fit in in either location. Not speaking Spanish, he feels particularly awkward with his Dad's family. One day, he butts heads with another neighborhood kid during a baseball batting contest. During the course of the book, these two eventually become friends and Danny's talents as a pitcher begin to be noticed.
Although Danny spends the Summer with his Dad's family...his Dad isn't there. This thread of the story helps to explain Danny's shyness...but I won't reveal it here.
An enjoyable baseball story...made more enjoyable by recognizing many of the locations.
task +10
review +10
total = 20
grand total = 270
10.1 Author you've never read (2nd one)Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
I was already a big fan of the movies before reading my first Bond novel (this one) – which is the reverse of my norm. Of course the novel is different from the movies. Bond is more of a thinker/planner and less a man of (explosive) action. The character and tone of the novel draws a direct line from the “hard boiled detectives” of the Sam Spade type. He still does have a way with the women, and champagne. The Bond here is a complicated man – not particularly likeable as a character for about 2/3s of the novel, and then you find out he’s a softie when it comes to his female foil. The novel is very much of it’s time (think smoking, drinking and sexist attitude of Bond), however Fleming’s writing will draw you in, keep things moving and the tension taut right up until the end. I definitely recommend this and will seek out other Fleming novels myself.
10 task
5 oldie
10 review
___
25
Running total: 270
10.8 The Horrors!Finders Keepers by Stephen King
I liked this installment of King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy, but I missed the creepiness of Mr. Mercedes. I really like Bill and his sidekicks, so I still enjoyed the mystery of the book and the pace of the last third of the story was intense. This book really didn’t have any elements of horror, though it was a good thriller, especially for book lovers as the plot centered around the lost works of an author and the lengths to which obsession can go. Although the villain was scary in this book, he paled beside Brady who is a character in this book, but still hospitalized. Hodges does visit him, but his creepy inside voice is missing, so the book was 4 stars for me, I’m hoping book 3 will be back to the 5 star level and I’m eagerly anticipating reading it already!
+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.3 Dictionary / 10.9 Kevin Bacon Approved Author Post#20
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 975
Karen Michele wrote: "10.8 The Horrors!Finders Keepers by Finders Keepers
I liked this installment of King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy, but I missed the creepiness of Mr. Mercedes. I really ..."
Author is Stephen King?
Bea wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "10.8 The Horrors!Finders Keepers by Finders Keepers
I liked this installment of King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy, but I missed the creepiness of M..."
Ooops! Yes, thanks, Bea - I fixed the post!
20.10 InterconnectedThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Review
Farts, Butts, Mooning, Genitalia, Sex Rampant including in trees and through windows, what a perfect read for the average teenage boy, provided he could read the “Olde Tonyge”. Bawdy and earthy but interspersed with overbearing, heavy lessons on the Christian Religion and its morals, a more counter counterpoint to above mentioned tales you would never find. It’s so Middle Ages!
Of course it is unfair to rate it with stars in today’s modern times. The sermons were tedious, the humor was pure ribald, and the pathos coupled with the unbelievable tales would have to be (and are) edited to fit the tastes of today’s readers. However the classicism and its place in history makes it an enduring piece of literature everyone who loves literature must read.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+15 pts- Combo (10.7, 10.9 - see post #399 in discussion thread, 20.2- pub date given as 1390 & author died in 1400)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
+25 pts - Oldies (1390)
+ 5 pts - Jumbo (504 pages MPE)
Task Total - 85 pts
Grand Total - 665 pts
itpdx wrote: "20.4 A Fine BalanceThe Vine Of Desire by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Review: Sister of My Heart follows two girls, cousins, growing up in a household of women in India...."
She is such a wonderful person as well as author. Have you read One Amazing Thing? I read it for the last challenge and it was my choice if I was able to pick a group read book
Rebekah wrote: "itpdx wrote: "20.4 A Fine BalanceThe Vine Of Desire by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Review: Sister of My Heart follows two girls, cousins, growing up in a household of w..."
Just to second that: One Amazing Thing was FANTASTIC. I read it when it first came out in 2010 and I still remember it fondly...which is saying a lot, as so many books I can't remember a month after reading them. I'd also recommend The Palace of Illusions and The Mistress of Spices!
20.4 BalanceAnne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Confession time: this is my first reading of this book. I watched the PBS version starring Megan Follows that would air every year (right around the time of the pledge-fund drive) more times than I can count. It was my first encounter with Anne and I was so fully enamored with the fiery, whip-smart, imaginative girl that I saw--so much wanted to BE her--that I couldn't imagine needing more. Finally reading the book was wonderful for so many reasons: I realized how very well they held to the book in the televised version; I was able to imagine Avonlea and Green Gables so much more fully by having them described that I truly felt I was there; I really just needed to have an uplifting and pure book and this most certainly fit the bill. I'm tempted to pick up Anne of Avonlea immediately, but think I'll hold off until I've read a difficult/sad/heavy book after which I'll need a mental/spiritual respite.
Side note: I was looking at other people who had posted this book to make sure I was listing all accepted Combo point options and was floored when I saw the ratings...on Sept 28, Will posted this same book, noting that there were 464,098 ratings for it. As of today, that number is 467,793. What an amazing testament to this story and character's lasting relevance that it has received so many ratings in so short a time.
+20 Task (#3 on Canada list)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1908)
+15 Combo
-10.7, tagged as Librivox 12 times
-10.9, per post 215
-20.6, 467,793 ratings
Task Total = 55
Grand Total = 880
Task 15.1 - TtUS - Land CruiserFinding Casey (Solomon's Oak #2) (2012) by Jo-Ann Mapson (Hardcover, 318 pages)
Set in New Mexico
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 350 + 15 = 365
15.7 TtUS Land CruiserMy Ántonia by Willa Cather
Nebraska
Lexile 1010
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total = 305
10.9 - Six Degrees:Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (approved author, post #151)
Review:
This is the second book in he Thursday Next series and cannot really be read as a stand-alone book. You should definitely start with "The Eyre Affair" first.
Just like the first book though, the story is set in an alternate history world that is quite different from ours. Neanderthals, dodos, thylacines and mammoths have been DNA-reconstructed. Literature is so important in people's lives that the political party who manages to get the votes of Shakespeare fans is almost guaranteed to win the election. People can commute in 40-something minutes from New York to Tokyo using Gravitube, a super-fast mode of transportation that moves in a tunnel inside the Earth.
We have a main character, Thursday Next, who is able to jump into books. Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations" is Thursday's mentor, and the Cheshire Cat the main librarian of Jurisfiction, an agency that makes sure characters from books don't do anything unexpected - such as leave one book to go take a vacation in another, for example.
Reading this was loads of fun. I was a bit disappointed with the overall plot, as sometimes it seemed to me that the jokes, the many minor characters and references to books took priority and the plot was weak because of that. There were too many sub-plots and storylines that started and ended abruptly. But it was still fun.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 170
10.1 Authors! Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight NightsReview: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
+10 Task
+10 Combos (10.4 Math, 10.9 6 Degrees)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Gabe - please post your review here in the group. Thanks!
20.5 HistoryPolio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky
I finished !!
The exclamation is not a reflection on the book, I actually quite enjoyed the book and certainly had a lot to learn about polio, the major players in the search for a vaccine and, as a non-American, FDR. It's just that, I struggle to read non-fiction and am prone to pick up many other books in between starting and finishing.
I probably found the narrative around the March of Dimes and public involvement in the polio situation more interesting than the science-based parts. I was horrified by some of the ruthlessness seen in exposing the public to vaccines that may not be entirely safe.
I didn't find either Salk or Sabin particularly charming, and find the public perception of them, so completely different, quite interesting and baffling.
+20 task
+10 Not a Novel
+10 review
+10 combos ( 10.9 - post 223 , 20.7)
Task Total = 50
Grand Total = 870
15.1 - TtUS Flight-seerA New York Christmas by Anne Perry
set in New York
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 820
Here's my review of Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight NightsWow. Just wow. Prior to this I (regrettably) had not read any of Salman Rushdie's novels, and I assure you that this will not be the last. The weaving interesting and thought-provoking themes of the human experience around a fast-paced (albeit, differently structured) story was masterful. The language was so beautiful that at least twice I had to stop, reread, and just smile for a moment.
So why four stars and not five? I found a couple of aspects a little distracting, not necessarily bad, but distracting. At some level, the book is written from the point-of-view of our distant future relatives relating the fairy tale of the saving of the world to us. This is fine, but frequent references to pop culture (not "Taylor Swift" or celebrity pop culture, but rather verbal modes and tropes of current modern life) almost seemed to date the novel and peg it to our current time. Again, there is something to be said for that, as the now is when the action happens...but a few of the references had me scratching my head, wondering if Rushdie had tried too hard to be hip or would lose future readability for these to-be anachronisms. Pretty minor point, I concede...but this is my review innit? There is a section of the book that gets a little choppy both with structure and arc...while there are perfectly good plot reasons Rushdie may have done this, there is some depth lacking in the character(s)(for the sake of vagueness) he introduces during this section that I think he could have made more of...
In the end, I LOVED this novel. I'd recommend it for any fan of beautiful writing, who does not mind a little magic in their world, or who is just searching for a though-provoking read while maintaining the fact that it is a story!
Task 20.4 Read one of the top 100 from the list South Asian Fiction OR one of the top 125 books from the list Best Canadian Literature.
October 18, 2015: #009 of Best Canadian Literature
Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy #1) (1970) by Robertson Davies (Paperback, 266 pages)
ReviewI picked up the three novels of the Deptford Trilogy at a library sale over a decade ago. I kept them around because they keep showing up on “best of” lists. Fifth Business definitely deserves to be on those lists. The novel is supposedly the handwritten autobiography of a professor of history at a private Canadian boy’s school getting ready to retire. He’s led a very interesting life, and his autobiography is very interesting to read. The first 80-90% of the novel meanders from situation to philosophical musings to situation. The last 10-20% is very eventful. It also satisfyingly ties together all the meandering from the first part of the novel (so that the meandering seems purposeful rather than random). I’m definitely planning to read the second book in the trilogy.
+20 Task (#20.4 Canadian)
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1940-1990)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 365 + 35 = 400
Anika wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "itpdx wrote: "20.4 A Fine BalanceThe Vine Of Desire by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Review: Sister of My Heart follows two girls, cousins, growing up in ..."
Read Mistress and have Palace. I read Sister of my Heart in my book club I was in when I lived in India. We left Texas and moved to the area known as Sugar Land near Houston and guess what! she brought her kids to the same library I was using all the time. Just being a regular mom like me although she's a prof at Univ of. Houston and I was a stay at home. When Amazing Thing came out she gave a talk at the library and she signed my copy but you know how it is.... I have thousands of books on my " to read list" but always try to fit them into a challenge.
10.1 AuthorWhen I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
+10 Task
YA Low Lexile – no styles
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 570
10.9 Six Degrees of Kevin BaconThe Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely
+10 Task (post 386)
YA Low Lexile – no styles
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 580
15.7 – TtUS Land CruiserThe Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev
Set approximately 75% in Illinois
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 605
15.8 – TtUS Land Cruiser Jason by Laurell K. Hamilton
Set entirely in St. Louis, Missouri
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 630
10.9 Six Degrees of Kevin BaconGirl at War by Sara Nović
Review: When I was in college, I took a political science course that focused a lot on the Balkans. The professor assigned this huge book that I never thoroughly completed reading that tried to make sense of the centuries worth of conflicts in the area, but I remember feeling like it still made no sense. Girl at War is set half during the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s, shown through the eyes of a 10 year old girl, and half a decade later when the same girl is in college in New York City. This fictional account showed the same thing that I ended up feeling after my college course – none of it makes any sense. Ana doesn’t understand who are the “good” guys and who are the “bad” guys, and most of the horrible things that happen seem arbitrary. In the end, I think that is kind of the point – it doesn’t really make all that much sense. Nović writes clearly about a convoluted issue, and while I didn’t love the time jumps, it was a great debut novel. Someday would love to visit Croatia, since by all accounts it is beautiful, at least along the coast, but I think I’d want to do my homework first. The wars might have subsided, but I can’t imagine all the pain is gone.
+10 Task (post 391)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 650
10.1 - Authors (3) In the City: Random Acts of Awareness by Colette Brooks
How does someone become a city person? Here's one way Brooks thinks it may start:
"A young girl dreams about a place she's only heard of in books, in movies, on TV. It's much bigger than the town in which she's grown up. People in that distant place are busy, happy, never bored... maybe, the girl thinks, there's room for one more.
"She takes the heavy encyclopedia off the shelf and looks the city up, traces its streets, its neighborhoods, its odd unpronounceable names. She wonders, ever so hesitantly, what it might be like to live there. And so the mysterious process has begun: the city is reeling her in."
I put such a long quote at the start because this is me. It might be because I grew up in the middle of nowhere but I fell in love with the city. The city closest to me, the cities I saw on tv. I took notes and learned the names of buildings and reveled every time I got to walk on city streets. I fell so hard in college I majored in urban planning.
So put me down as a hardcore city person. But if you've ever delighted in a metropolis, in any small way, you'll enjoy this book. Described as creative nonfiction it dips into the wells of memoir, delightful facts, and poetic musings. History creeps in but names are left out, making the whole thing feel timeless. It also makes you think - did that really happen? I recognized the guy in the last story, but is this true, too?
"Some claim now that our ancient apprehensions are outmoded, that cities today extend horizontally rather than upward, that height itself is nothing to be feared any longer.
"But I've been to those horizontal cities, and I wonder: isn't zooming along a freeway simply falling sideways?"
It's sad this book isn't better known because I enjoyed it immensely. An enthusiastic recommend to city people everywhere.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 Not-a-novel (creative non-fiction)
Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 205 points
20.3 DifficultAmerican Gods by Neil Gaiman
This has been one of those books for me that has been on my list for ages and I just never got to it. I have enjoyed other Gaiman books, some more than others, but this always felt like The One that everyone talked about! I'm glad I read it...but I am less surprised than I was at finding it on a list of difficult reads. I'm not even quite sure how to describe it...it's sort of an epic journey book, following Shadow across America as he interacts with new and old gods, both benevolent and not. I found it difficult going, early on -- it took me a good 100-200 pages before I felt that pull to get back to the book. Before that I felt pretty willing to set it aside when a new library book would come in. However, the payoff, once I was hooked, was big. Once I was into it, I loved the story (especially the funeral parlor and Lakeside scenes), loved the writing, was compelled by the themes, and felt like if I re-read it someday, I'd get even more out of it on the second read.
+20 Task (#86 on the list)
+20 Combo (10.3, 10.8 - #26 on list, 10.9, 20.6 - 369,075 ratings)
+5 Jumbo (656 pgs)
+10 Review
Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 225
15.4 TtUS Land CruiserSharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Missouri
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 250
20.1 CelebrationHappy birthday Elizabeth!
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
I've been on a kick recently of re-reading Mrs. Pollifax books -- these were some of my mom's favorites as well as mine, when I was a teenager. The series tells the adventures of Mrs. Pollifax, a widowed Garden Club enthusiast in New Jersey, who ends up working for the CIA after her doctor advises her to find a new interest or hobby to avoid depression. I read almost all of the series years ago, and then haven't picked one up since. I've found, though, that they are mostly delightful and wonderful airplane/commuting reading - light, engaging, fast. I'm saving some up for a long flight I have in November! It's such a pleasure to rediscover something enjoyable like this!
+20 task (pub 1970)
+5 oldies
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 285
10.1 AuthorsThe Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin
The Panic Virus attempts to explain how and why anti-vaccine belief has sprung up (again) in recent years, and the effects of this trend. I found this book far more fascinating than the subject would suggest. I didn't know, for example, the history of vaccine rejectors, for different reasons, and I didn't know much about the ways that vaccines were developed and tested. Most of all, his research made me think about the way (some) people tend to treat science in the US. It's a fascinating puzzle, because I think it has to do with the media, religion, culture, education, trust in authority (or lack thereof), our beliefs about the value of individualism, and more. Mnookin issues a pretty harsh indictment of how the media did more to fan the flames of the issue than anyone else, and from reading his book I am inclined to agree that the media in general was not especially responsible in this story! I was surprisingly entertained by this book, and learned a lot.
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 315
Post 462 Ed wrote: "10.9 Six DegreesMexican White Boy by Matt de la Pena post 362
I chose to read this book because I needed a book based in my home town (San Diego) for another Good ..."
I'm sorry, Ed. This book is listed as YA fiction at BPL, but there is no Lexile. Task, but no styles.
10.5 - October AwardsThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
The Warmth of Other Suns is the pulitzer prize winning account of the migration of African Americans from the south before, during, and after the Civil Rights movement. Wilkerson profiles the lives of three "immigrants" who left Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana for Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, respectively, during this time, and uses their stories to illustrate larger patterns and trends that can be found in the individuals and families that left the south seeking "the warmth of other suns." As a Mississippi native (we left when I was ten, but most of my extended family is still there), this was especially interesting for me to read - and heartbreaking. Even if you think you know, generally speaking, about the horrific ways African Americans have been/are treated in this country, I bet you this book will still shake you to the core. And yet Wilkerson doesn't demonize the south - she is honest about the awful ways whites treated blacks, but also does a good job of honoring the rich culture there, and how it has shaped other parts of the country when immigrants left for places in the north and the west. This book starts each chapter with quotes and I kept expecting one of my favorites to pop up, because to me, it sums up in a sentence what Wilkerson is trying to tackle with this book: "I wasn't leaving the south to forget the south, but that some day I might understand it." - Black Boy, Richard Wright
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
+5 jumbo
+5 combo (20.7 - microhistories)
task total: 40
grand total: 150
10.4 Math1776 by David McCullough
Review
This book covers the most pivotal year in the history of the United States of America. Every American schoolchild knows the date July 4, 1776 as the birth of the nation. However award-winning author David McCullough leads us through the events in chronological order from the last few months of 1775 until events that occurred in January 1776. He doesn’t do it in a dry professor lecture either. He uses a human understanding of what was at stake, the unspeakable odds, the dichotomy of the well trained, multitudinous British army and navy and the well disciplined Hessian mercenaries against a group of farmers, chemists, grocers, bakers, smiths, ploughboys, ministers, clerks, lawyers, doctors and a very few experienced soldiers who were British soldiers themselves in the prior French and Indian War. How much chance played part, how the weather could so turn the game, how many spirit crushing defeats Washington endured, the lack of trust between New Englanders and Southerners, the gaunt hunger, rampant disease, the discomforts, the desertions and turncoats and the bleak outlook of absolute destruction and defeat were all visualized for us in this book. As the Americans were being sorely routed, many without proper clothing or weapons or shelter, somehow the ending of year turned with the decisive but undreamt of, stroke of Washington’s famous Crossing of the Delaware. This battle on Christmas Day led to the total surrender of the Hessians and ultimately had the British army on the retreat. At the risk of typifying an arrogant, boastful, and ethnocentric American, I can only think of the country’s very existence as nothing short of miraculous. Totally unbelievable. Although the war dragged on much longer and there were other defeats and horrific winters to get through, this was the year that this group of visionaries all on their own were able to make a future country a reality. This was the year Thomas Paine penned his article The American Crisis beginning with the oft-quoted line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Combo (10.9 -see post # 12 in thread, 20.8)
+10 pts - Non-Fiction
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 705 pts
10.3 DictionaryRed Spikes by Margo Lanagan
Lexile 820
+10 task (R-S)
+10 Not-a-novel (short stories)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 840
10.1 New AuthorThe Martian by Andy Weir
This book has been on my tbr list for some time, but since the movie came out, and I like to read the book before I watch the movie, I decided I'd better read it now. It is a fun page turner, with a good amount of scientific problem solving. It was hard to put down, and as soon as I finished it I gave it to my 13 y.o. son, who has been obsessed with Mars and space travel since the age of 4. He gulped it down in less than 24 hours, and now we are looking forward to seeing the movie together.
Usually I worry, when watching a movie directly after reading the book on which it was based, that the movie will either not be faithful to the book or will visually interpret it differently from me and interfere with the way I had imagined it should be. I am not worried about that with this book. It is a non-stop novel of survival, but it reads almost exactly like an action movie. The characters are sketched in with little or no individual development. The plot is clearly setting you up for a happy ending, and the description of the setting is all business. We know what the main character needs for his problem solving, but no unneccessary visual descriptions of the environment he lives in. So it was a fun read. I am a sucker for survival stories, and find Mars interesting. But because of what it wasn't, I can't give it more than three stars.
10 pt. task
+5 combo (10.9 - post 211)
+10 review
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 225
10.3 DictionaryJurassic Park by Michael Crichton
+10 task
+10 review
The book was fun and creepy. I liked it and felt the thrill of it.
I couldn't help comparing it to the movie as I went, of course, and visualizing the actors where appropriate. The build-up was slower and there were some differences in characterization and results. But the awe was there at the dinosaurs and the velociraptors were somehow even scarier when being described by just words.
It still stands up as a sci-fi action story, even though it's been 25 years since it was published. The computer security and visualization of code was the only part that felt a bit off.
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
10.6 Reunification-The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
+10 task
+10 review
+10 age
+5 combo 20.2
Very weird story. And even odder knowing it was written in 1915. I found it more depressing than compelling and found the main character's detachment from his situation odd. One interesting thing was that Kafka never fully described the bug, leaving it to the horrors of imagination.
Task total: 35
Grand total: 55
Beth, could you post the review in the group please? Thanks!
10.8 The Horrors!-Karen's TaskFrankenstein by Mary Shelley
+10 task
+10 review
+15 age
+10 combo - 20.6 >300,000 ratings / 10.7 librivox
I'd never read Frankenstein before and it wasn't at all what I expected. The horror for me was in the uncertainty of villainy, the insidious nigglings that maybe the monster's actions should be excused, and less in the actual events that occurred. Although I'm sure other elements contributed to the horror of contemporary readers who hadn't been exposed to gory movies. And that moral questioning was what made this book timeless for me.
The book began with letters and gave just enough of a glimpse of the monster and its effects to intrigue before starting over at Frankenstein's boyhood. When we finally got to the monster I was disgusted with Frankenstein's reaction and the compassion grew during the first part of the monster telling his own story. And then it twisted as he was, and continued to be, deliberately malevolent, justifying himself so well that I, like Frankenstein, began to believe again that there could be hope when there was none.
Although, one thing I just don't get, how the heck did Frankenstein make an 8 foot tall monster out of normal sized human body parts? I mean, he wouldn't have been making the bones any bigger? Eh, if I accept the premise of a secret to animation I can accept that, since the hulking oversized nature was part of the effect.
Task total: 45
Grand total: 100
20.4 BalanceA Passage to India by E.M. Forster
+20 task
+10 review
+10 age
+5 combo - Forster is on approved Kevin Bacon list
This book was amazing. I completely didn't expect a multi-layered, multi-perspective book from a Brit in the 1920s. Its existence made more sense when I read Forster's biography, but I was still impressed.
The book did a great job in shifting perspectives and in making me feel emotionally the rightness of whatever worldview I was looking from at the time. It had some surreal experiences within it, but they fit as part of the culture clash. I can't really say I liked any of the characters in particular, but they did feel like read people.
Well worth reading.
Task total: 45
Grand total: 145
20.9 Authors with Three NamesA History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest by James Henry Breasted
+20 task
+10 review
+10 nonfiction
+10 age
+5 length
I enjoyed the read. Breasted does a very good job drawing stories from the original sources, while still lightly touching on what the observable facts are - or were at the time.
His admiration for some of the Pharaohs and many of their accomplishments shines through. As does his compassionate disapproval of other portions of Egyptian history. There's more opinion than in many current history books.
It was interesting reading a history written in 1905, filled with names that don't look quite right, laid out before the discovery of King Tut's tomb, among other aspects of modern scholarship.
Task total: 55
Grand total: 200
20.1-Celebration!Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
+20 task
+10 review
+10 nonfiction
This was a great, easy to read, biography/history of Shakespeare.
Bryson has a comfortable, informal voice that explores and teaches more like a conversation than a text. I really enjoyed how he ranged around the few facts we know about Shakespeare, talking about why that may be, and the different possibilities that could have occurred, and always coming up back to what we could say.
I also thought the comments regarding those who do not think that William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him were fair and well-balanced. Bryson was refuting them and had a decided opinion on the matter but it didn't sound forced.
I recommend this book for anyone with a general interest in Shakespeare.
Task total: 40
Grand total: 240
20.2-InnocenceThe Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo - Dick on approved Bacon list
+5 age
The setting was a bit mindbending, but plausible. The smaller character focused stories are interesting and don't so much converge as influence each other in interesting ways. The ending was a bit odd and more obscure than I expected, but that did rather fit with the I Ching theme that also ran through the book.
The writing was easy to read but a little offset from a normal narrative. Many characters spoke and thought as a second language speaker might, without the small articles and joining words that make language flow. It was distinctive without being intrusive.
Overall I liked it and am interested in seeing what screen treatment they will give the story.
Task total: 40
Grand total: 280
10.7 LibrivoxThe Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
+10 task
+15 age
+10 review
Melodrama galore! One of the big plot pieces I spotted at the beginning and I was amused when it was finally revealed, but I enjoyed the journey.
Some of the little touches were great, like the narrator's personal hypocrisies and his attempts to protect his daughters. There were pages of moralizing that I admit I kind of rushed through and could have done without.
Task total: 35
Grand total: 315
10.2 Agatha Christie-Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
+10 task
+10 review
+10 age
+5 combo - Huxley on Kevin Bacon approved list
I hadn't read this book for school, although I was familiar with the title.
The set-up gave me shudders, as it was meant to, with how the individuals were chemically adjusted before birth to be satisfied with their position in life. The reading experience felt a little weird as the book went forward because the protagonist changed a couple times, making it feel more like a fable than a novel somehow. But it the quality held up all the way through.
I don't really know what to think of it, from a philosophical point of view, where it touched on questions on identity and humanity, but it was worth reading.
Task total: 35
Grand total: 350
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Beth, could you post the review in the group please? Thanks!"Ok, edited...
20.1 Celebration!Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
+20 Task (published 2007)
+10 Combo (10.9 – post 305, 20.10)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 870
From Post 463Valerie wrote: "10.1 Author you've never read (2nd one)
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
I was already a big fan of the movies before reading my first Bond novel (this one) – which is t..."
+10 Combo 10.2 (1908-1964) and 20.2 (pub 1953, died 1964)
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Mothers, Tell Your Daughters (other topics)Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks' Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916-30 (other topics)
John Adams (other topics)
Moving Target (other topics)
John Adams (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bonnie Jo Campbell (other topics)Peter Gottlieb (other topics)
David McCullough (other topics)
J.A. Jance (other topics)
David McCullough (other topics)
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Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
Georgia
15 pt. task
Grand total: 185