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WI 15-16 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 15/16
20.1 Grazia DeleddaThe Financier by Theodore Dreiser
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.9)
+10 Oldies (1911)
+5 Series
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 1590
20.1 Grazia DeleddaThe Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck-does not currently appear to have a YA designation at the BPL, but I could be missing it.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.9, 10.2)
+5 Oldies (1961)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1625
10.2 Noel, NoelThe Comedians by Graham Greene
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.9)
+5 Oldies (1965)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1645
15.10 - DominoesSpice and Smoke by Suleikha Snyder
+15 task (same author country as 15.9)
+15 task bonus
+100 completion bonus
+25 all female authors
Task total: 155 points
Grand total: 705 points
10.5 - Stephen KingWolves of the Calla by Stephen King
+10 task
+5 combo (20.1)
+20 jumbo (931 pages)
+5 series (Dark Tower #5)
task total: 40
grand total: 655
10.7 - 31 timesA Vision in Velvet by Juliet Blackwell
+10 task
+5 series (Witchcraft Mystery #6)
task total: 15
grand total: 670
20.4 Alice MunroThe Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
Review:
I've been reading these stories slowly over the past three months. I would read one, then I'd set the book aside, read something else. Then pick the book up for the next story. Alice Munro has been called one of the best modern short story authors, and it's easy to see why in this collection. There are no real narrative twists here, no thrilling plotlines, no magical powers. And yet. The characters radiate with authenticity and life in a way that's almost hard to believe. They aren't likeable, they act deliberately or infuriatingly rashly, they engage intellectual debates over literary stories. As with any short story collection, there were stories I liked more than others, but all of the stories here are strong. Highly recommended.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.1 - see help; 10.8 - Canada)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 690
I'd like to move a book:In post #150, I posted The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters for 15,1.
I'd like to move that to 10.2:
Review:
The narrator did a fantastic job on this audiobook - winner of a well-deserved audiofile earphones award. I think I understood the characters better by hearing their different accents performed. The book started as a historical novel with a lesbian romantic twist on a love triangle, then developed into a faster-paced story toward the middle of the book.
I was disappointed in the ending, but otherwise quite taken with the book. I really enjoy Sarah Waters' ability to write lush language and to dive deep into the dark corners of the relationships she examines. I'll definitely seek out more of her work. Too bad this is the only one my library has on overdrive
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (564 pgs.)
Task total: 25 (-15 already posted) = +10
Grand total: 700
And another move:In post #524, I posted The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith for 10.2.
I'd like to move that to 20.1.
Task total: +10
Grand total: 710
20.7 FeminismHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
+20 task (no. 126 on list)
+5 combo (20.1 approved in message 193 of help thread)
Task total: 25
RwS Total: 320
Dominoes Total: 150
Grand Total: 470
15.5 - DominoesCoup de Grâce by Marguerite Yourcenar - same first name as 15.4
total= +15
grand total = 810
From Post 884Bea wrote: "20.5 Alice Munro (2013)
Runaway by Alice Munro
Scotiabank Giller Prize winner 2004
Review:
I was looking for a book for this task, when I discovered this one in my lo..."
+5 Combo 10.8
From Post 891Bea wrote: "20.9 Winnie-the-Pooh
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Review:
OK. So everyone seemed to rave about this book, but I had a hard time getting started with it...."
+5 Combo 20.7
Sam wrote: "20.6 - Svetlana AlexievichCancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
While I feel like some of the subtleties of this novel were lost on me due to not having a lot of background knowledg..."
+5 Combo 10.8
Heather wrote: "10.5 - Stephen KingWolves of the Calla by Stephen King
+10 task
+5 combo (20.1)
+20 jumbo (931 pages)
+5 series (Dark Tower #5)
task total: 40
grand total: 655"
+5 Combo 10.3
20.4 Elfriede JelinekEva's Eye by Karin Fossum
+20 Task (born in Norway, published in Norweigan)
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.8, 10.9)
+15 Series (3rd book claimed in this series)
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 1700
20.2 Sigrid UndsetCompany of Liars by Karen Maitland
+20 Task (set in 1348)
+5 Jumbo
+5 Combo (10.9)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1730
10.9 Realistic RatingsWonderland by Joyce Carol Oates
+10 Task (3.84)
+5 Jumbo (528)
+5 Oldies (1971)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1770
I've got a question about my scoring - is there a reason my mega finish isn't included? I shifted things around and Kate caught them, and I have no discrepancies on the scoring anywhere. I can list my books for each task if you want, but it'll be a long post - let me know if I should. Thanks!
Cory Day wrote: "I've got a question about my scoring - is there a reason my mega finish isn't included? I shifted things around and Kate caught them, and I have no discrepancies on the scoring anywhere. I can list..."I'm sorry, Cory. and Congratulations - well done! I'm sure Kate catch this next time.
20.4 Elfriede JelinekThe Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
This is my neighborhood book club's February pick. I suspect the book will generate good conversation, but I didn't love the novel. I loved the setting and the initial premise -- a trip down the Seine in a book barge where the "literary apothecary" prescribes the right books to the right readers to cure what ails their souls. It's an almost perfect book blurb. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book is the story of a man who never recovers from a long-ago love affair with a married woman he met on a train, then his grief later when he learns more about the circumstances of their separation. I liked the idea of musing on grief and love lost and life continuing, but I never felt close to these characters and never connected to their emotions. I'm not sorry to have read this, but I won't be recommending it to anyone.
+20 Task (translated from German)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.9 - 3.53; 20.1 - see help thread)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 750
20.1 - Stephen King approved in threadSong of Susannah by Stephen King
I’m going to break my streak and review this one. Ok, Stephen. We get it. You’re the center of the universe. Can you Mary Sue any harder? I really enjoyed the Wolves of the Calla and we all know that almost every book you’ve written ties back to the Tower in some way but beating us over the head with it kind of makes it lose its savor. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll finish the entire series. However, it’s losing its luster, I guess you could say. This is a failing of a LOT of the longer stories, though. They just kind of run out of steam. I’m hoping that The Dark Tower will make up for it, but I’m not holding my breath.
+20 task
+15 combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.9 - 3.98)
+10 review
+10 Series (Dark Tower #6)
+5 jumbo (544 pages)
task total: 60
grand total: 720
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Cory Day wrote: "I've got a question about my scoring - is there a reason my mega finish isn't included? I shifted things around and Kate caught them, and I have no discrepancies on the scoring any..."Thanks Elizabeth! I just wanted to make sure I haven't messed up anywhere :)
20.2 Sigred UndsetWorld Without End by Ken Follett
I enjoyed listening to this 45+ hour monstrosity of a novel. John Lee does a fine job keeping the large cast of characters straight and is pleasing to listen to throughout. On the one hand, I found the whole thing entertaining. On the other hand, I've got lots of complaints. The characters here are not fully fleshed out fallible human beings -- they're more like caricatures of good and evil. The villains are wholly evil and generally don't learn from the past; the heroes are not only always public-spirited but also outright geniuses. My biggest complaint was Clan of the Cave Bear syndrome. Like Ayla in that series, the heroes here invent practically everything -- germ theory, paper, chalkboards, fabric dyes, fancy looms, architectural marvels, lift and pulley systems, etc. Caris defies all expectations for a woman of her time -- she challenges religion, resists marrying, doesn't want children, runs a business and a hospital, etc. Others have described her as a time traveler -- she's transplanted from modern times back to the medieval setting. While it isn't quite as bad as that, the suspension of disbelief required to follow her as a character is often too much.
Overall, enjoyable. I'd read or listen to another Follett book at some point.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+25 Jumbo (1014 pgs.)
Task total: 55
Grand total: 805
10.1 Design Your Own Task: Read a book checked out from the libraryHalf Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Review: Jeannette Walls created this "true life novel" about the incredible life of her Grandma from the often repeated stories and lore passed down from her mother. From growing up poor on the unforgiving land of West Texas, to adjusting to life in the big city of Chicago, and even selling bootleg liquor to pay for flying lessons, Lily led an incredible life that was as harsh as it was thrilling. This book is highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle, as it gives insight into her own unconventional upbringing and helped me to better understand her mother’s parenting skills (or lack thereof).
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 235
10.1 Design Your Own Task: Read a book checked out from the libraryFun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Task total: 10
Grand total: 245
10.1 Design Your Own Task: Read a book checked out from the libraryAs You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
Task total: 10
Grand total: 255
15.10 DominoesHella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe,Wingnut's War Against the GAP, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America by Evan Wright
+30 task same word in the title, nation, as 15.9
+100 completion of book dominoes
Task total 130
Grand Total 430
I have a question, the scoreboard says I have 165 points. I have recorded 170 points. Am I off somewhere in points ? My last post was post number 876. It isn't a big deal. I was just curious.
10.7 Cozy HolidaysCrocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Hmmmm...where to begin? I do enjoy the occasional mystery...including Agatha Christie. And this novel starts with the impression that it was right in the Christie style...even the settings in Egypt. But about midway, I realized I wasn't enjoying this. In a nutshell... the story has one English heiress rescue another prospective English heiress in Italy and takes her along on her trip to Egypt. The pair meet a another pair of male English archaeologists. A mummy begins to walk around their settlement.... terrorizing everyone. Ugh. I probably could have handled this if I was sure it was all tongue-in-cheek...but I wasn't so sure. Near the end, when the reader feels that the author doesn't know what to do next in the story...she actually has two of the characters discuss the events...and they actually admit that anyone hearing the story would find it far-fetched. Ain't that the truth!
task +10
review +10
total = 20
grand total= 830
15.9 - DominoesAround the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
+15 task ("World" in title, same as 15.8 - post 871)
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
RwS Total: 320
Dominoes Total: 180
Grand Total: 500
10.1 - New AuthorGlasgow Kiss by Alex Gray
+10 task
+5 series #6
+5 Combo (10.9)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 370
10.9 - Realistic RatingsFire and Ice by J.A. Jance
+10 task
+5 Combo (10.2)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 385
20.1 - Grazia Deledda:Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell (on the approved list of authors)
Review:
This is the 23rd book in the Kay Scarpetta series. I started reading them mid-to-late-1990s, and have been following the lives of the main characters ever since. I still feel like I have to read every new novel that comes out. But it's more because I feel like I've invested so many years already, not because they're good. Sadly, Cornwell has diverted more and more with every book from everything that made the books good. Scarpetta herself, the main character, was once fiercely brave, a woman in a man's world - the world of police, FBI, crime. She was determined, intelligent, worked hard and wanted to be the best. Her knowledge and intuition solved the crimes and the best part of the books was reading about her noticing things that nobody else saw. In this one... she's hardly even working any more. She's fearful, her mind isn't focused, she's scared of her own shadow and trusts no-one, including her own niece and husband. She seems to be caught in a whirlwind of events that she has no control over and most of the time is just whining and complaining and being confused. It's just sad how Cornwell has made me dislike the characters she's created!
+20 task
+10 review
+5 series (Kay Scarpetta series)
+5 combo (10.9 Realistic Ratings, average of 3.58)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 345
20.9 Winnie-the-PoohA Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
Review:
"A Buyer's Market" takes the narrator, Nick Jenkins, to London in the late 1920s. Much of the novel is set at either upscale parties, or with a group of bohemians that revolve around the artist Mr Deacon.
The title of the book suggests that the parties are a kind of marketplace. People attend the parties to meet marriage prospects and sexual partners. The parties are also an opportunity to make business contacts, the 1920s version of networking. It was important to climb the social ladder by mingling with people of a high social class.
"A Buyer's Market" introduces the reader to new characters and revisits Jenkins' friends from school. Jenkins is also spending time with artists and writers. Kenneth Winmerpool resurfaces and seems to be especially determined to be successful in business. He tells Jenkins, "No woman who takes my mind off my work is ever to play a part in my life in the future." The book left me wondering what's to come in the third book of the series, "The Acceptance World".
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.87)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1952)
+10 review
+10 series (second book in this series read this winter)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 745
10.2The Dark Tower by Stephen King
+10 task
+10 combo (10.3, 20.1)
+15 series (Dark Tower #7)
+25 jumbo (1050 pages)
task total: 60
grand total: 780
20.7 FeminismElla Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
+20 Task
(Lexile 670 – no styles)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1620
20.9 Winnie-the-Pooh (1882-1956)After Midnight by Irmgard Keun
Review: After Midnight is short, and it doesn’t really have much of a plot, but it’s powerful if only because of the setting and timing of its publishing. Keun wrote it when she was very young and published it in 1937, just after fleeing Nazi Germany. The book is proof that even if it might have been difficult to comprehend where Hitler would eventually take Europe, the signs were there a year before Kristallnacht even happened. Keun paints a picture of a Germany that was obviously heading somewhere scary, with her main character fleeing with her lover just as the author had done. It’d be a good book to study to show how little things can eventually add up to something horrifyingly big.
+20 Task (published 1937)
+10 Oldies
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.9 – 3.85, 20.4 – Keun was German, wrote this in German)
Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 1675
10.6 Australia DayThat Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
Review: I’m not really sure how to review this book, since my thoughts were a little all over the map on it. At first I was totally sucked into this world of first contact between native people and white settlers in Australia – the author mentions wanting to capture a sense of playfulness, which he does, especially at the beginning. But somewhere along the way I started losing track of what perspective I was following, what time period it was, and what was happening overall. By the end, when the inevitable really happens, I found myself kind of not caring much anymore. I am glad I read it, because I learned a little about something of which I basically have no knowledge. The thing that most caught my attention may have been unintentional – I found myself looking up ways of building in Australia during the 1830s and 1840s. I didn’t know the English sometimes brought prefabricated homes with them when settling!
+10 Task (Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for fiction 2010)
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.9 – 3.48)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1705
10.2 Noel, NoelThe Art Forger by Barbara A. Shapiro
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 Realistic Ratings
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 1265
10.6 Australia DayThat Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.2 Noel, Noel / 10.9 Realistic Ratings (3.48)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1285
10.4 LoveThe Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
+10 pts - Task (#266)
+ 5 pts - Combo (20.2)
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1989)
+20 pts - Jumbo (973 pgs)
Task Total -40 pts
Grand Total - 820 pts
10.2 Noel, NoelSpeaks the Nightbird (Matthew Corbett #1) by Robert McCammon
Review
Enjoyed the mystery though it somewhat sounds familiar which made me think that I might’ve read this book before but I’m pretty sure that I haven’t! It might be familiar because there’s one particular point that is the same with another book (I can’t remember which) but I don’t think this matters much as truly in this day & age, with so many books, you can’t hardly read a book without finding something similar to another book.
Overall, I think this first book in the series is a fairly good introduction to the main character, Matthew Corbett, but overall, it tested my patience a tad too much -way way waaaaayyyy too slow in pace (did you notice it's a pretty hefty book too?!). Nevertheless, I'm fairly interested in reading the next book to see how Matthew has developed as a character before I decide whether or not to invest in this series.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Series
+15 Jumbo (816 pages)
Post total: 40 points
Total points: 1,175 points
10.7 Cozy Holidays Still Life by Louise Penny
+10 Task: 61 users
+10 Combo: 10.8 Winter Solstice (Canada) / 10.9 Realistic Ratings (3.92)
+ 5 Series 1
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1310
20.1-Grazia Deledda (1926)Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes by Per Petterson
+20 Task: approved in thread
+15 Combo: 10.2 Noel, Noel / 10.8 Winter Solstice (Norway) / 10.9 Realistic Ratings (3.66)
+ 5 Oldies (1987)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 1350
20.8 Best of 2015 The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
+20 Task
+10 Combo: 20.1-Grazia Deledda (1926) / 10.8 Winter Solstice (Russia)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1380
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Alex Berenson (other topics)Brad Smith (other topics)
Harry Brandt (other topics)
Ta-Nehisi Coates (other topics)
Alex Berenson (other topics)
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A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1545