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WI 15-16 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 15/16
10.9 Realistic RatingsThe Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
+10 task ( rating 3.74)
Task total: 10
Grand Total: 220
10.7 Cozy HolidaysHolly Blues by Susan Wittig Albert (shelved 16 times)
+10 pts - task
+ 5 pts - combo (10.9-3.8 rating)
+ 5 pts - series (China Bayles mysteries)
Task total - 20 pts
Grand total - 205 pts
20.9 Winnie-the-Pooh:Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (first published 1953)
Review:
This was the first James Bond novel I've ever read, despite having seen most of the movies. I didn't really have any expectations, but after reading I still felt like it was somehow different from what I was expecting.
There wasn't much action at all, instead lots of detailed descriptions of gambling and card games, and the entire plot was over in just a few days. Bond wasn't really the cool, invincible superman we usually see on the screen. He actually fell for an easy trick, was at the mercy of the villains and only escaped due to luck. He also came off as a broken man with deep psychological problems.
The book started out a bit slow but then the pace picked up and it was quite enjoyable to read. Even with the widely noted shauvinist tendencies of Mr Bond.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
+5 combo (10.9 Realistic Ratings, average of 3.71)
+5 series - James Bond (Original Series)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 160
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 208 Heather wrote: "15.2 - authors both born in BritainFrom Hell by Alan Moore
+15 task
task total: 15
grand total: 165"
I'm sorry, Heather, Graphic Novels do n..."
I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but the how to post doesn't say that. It specifically says 'cookbooks, illustrated guides, and YA books with a Lexile score less than 800 are not allowed.' From Hell is none of those. There's no mention of graphic novels at all. Am I misreading something or was it omitted?
Heather wrote: "I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but the how to post doesn't say that. It specifically says 'cookbooks, illustrated guides, and YA books with a Lexile score less than 800 are not allowed.' From Hell is none of those. There's no mention of graphic novels at all. Am I misreading something or was it omitted? "Sorry, Heather. It looks like it did not make it in to the specific language of our Dominoes Challenge. It is, however, in our FAQs and a standard rule: Graphic Novels are not accepted for the sub-challenge with very few exceptions.
From the FAQs
Are graphic novels allowed?
Yes, with a couple of caveats. Graphic novels cannot be used for the sub-challenges (15-point tasks), unless otherwise specified. Graphic novels can be read for the RwS tasks (10-point and 20-point tasks), but they are not eligible for style points.
Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but the how to post doesn't say that. It specifically says 'cookbooks, illustrated guides, and YA books with a Lexile score less than 800 are not all..."Ok, that's what I was wanting to know - if I just missed something or what. Thanks!
Since that's the case, can I move it to 10.1? Points would go down by 5 since it'd be a 10 point with no styles instead of a 15, right?
20.5 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
+20 task
+5 oldies (1985)
+5 combo (20.7 - #1)
task total: 30
grand total: 235
Post 243 Karen Michele wrote: "Kate S wrote: "From Post 190Karen Michele wrote: "10.5 Favorite Authors (a.k.a. Moderator Gift)
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
I don't think series counts here, though, because the hardback is a compilation of an online series.."
We're going to count it as GR has it listed as a series. It would count for anyone reading this book.
Ok, thanks! I'll add the +5 :)
Post 263Heather wrote: "10.9Specials by Scott Westerfeld
+10 task
+10 series (Uglies book 3)
task total: 20
grand total: 210"
Sorry, Heather. To count for the compounding Series points, a book must be posted for a different task than the other books of the same series.
10.10 Group ReadsThe Farm by Tom Rob Smith
This book was recommended by this group - and I'm glad it was. I had never heard of this and vaguely associated this author with Russian spy novels (which I guess is fair enough since Child 44 seems to be his most popular). The book presents a fairly interesting case study of paranoia and a bit of guessing about the reliability of different narrators. I found the book compelling and raced through it in a couple of days reading the kindle edition on my phone. I enjoyed the writing enough that I've already downloaded and started reading a copy of Child 44. I can see why people expecting a thriller or a spy novel would find this book boring or off the mark, but for a book evoking a sense of doom and gloom in remote Sweden, I found it suitably creepy and compelling. Recommended.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.9 - 3.52, 20.1 - approved in help thread)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 140
10.6 Australia DayThe Secret River by Kate Grenville
Review:
Colonization is traumatic for all involved. The colonists understand nothing. Violence ensues. Early settlers trying to make lives for themselves find it convenient to believe that the people who already live there aren't really people at all. One of the most poignant scenes for me was when the white wife (Sal) visits the camp of the nearby natives for the first time and realizes that they really are people with kids, families, tools, housing, and everything else. I've never been to Australia or to the Hawkesbury River, but the book brought the place to life. I wish there had been much more insight into the side characters (the wife and kids of the protagonist, for example). Maybe the later books in the series tackle some of that, or maybe they just march forward in time.
I enjoyed this book enough that I'd read the next book in the series, but I had no urge to rush out and find a copy immediately.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.9 - 3.78, 20.1 - approved in help thread)
+5 Series
Task total: 35
Grand total: 175
20.5-Alice Munro (2013)Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
Governor General's Literary Awards for Fiction 2007
Review
An absolutely frustrating end! It’s one of those ending of hope, of life going on in a perhaps better way, but without any definitive note to it. There were 4 perspectives: Anna, Claire, & Coop, and then Lucien. Lucien’s perspective was the last and felt like an add-on because he was Anna’s obsession, her pre-occupation, her reason for being in France; she’s investigating his life for a biographical work. The novel began with the present of Anna, Claire, & Coop. Then, it wound back to how they were “Anna, Claire, & Coop” before turning its eyes to the present characters’ progresses. These movements in time were disconcerting! On the other hand, I listened to the audiobook and have really enjoyed the narrator’s readings. Divisadero, with its lyrical prose, is a very intimate novel; I feel like these characters were standing so close to me and if I were to reach out, I could touch them.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.9 - 3.47 avg; 20.1 - qualifying review)
+10 Review
Total this post: 40 points
Total points: 420 points
Rosemary wrote: "Could I please move I, Robot (post 119) from task 10.8 to 10.3 - Science Fiction Day?There is no change to points."
Sure thing, Rosemary. Thank you for including the original post number, much appreciated!
Heather wrote: "Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but the how to post doesn't say that. It specifically says 'cookbooks, illustrated guides, and YA books with a Lexile score less than ..."Moved to 10.1 (and yes, that is for 10 points, no style).
Heather wrote: "20.5 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
+20 task
+5 oldies (1985)
+5 combo (20.7 - #1)
task total: 30
grand total: 235"
Sorry, again, Heather. This book is listed as YA Assignment at the BPL with a lexile score of 750, task points, but no styles.
From Post 239Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.1 Create Your Own Task- Read a book that has Fantasy as its genre- Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink 259 users shelved it as Fantasy as of 12/6/15
Review
I d..."
+5 Combo 10.9-3.99 average rating
Task 10.9 Realistic Ratings A Loyal Character Dancer (Inspector Chen Cao #2) (2002) by Qiu Xiaolong (Paperback, 351 pages)
+10 Task
+05 Series
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 115 + 15 = 130
Heather wrote: "10.9Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
+10 task
+5 series (Uglies book 2)
task total: 15
grand total: 190"
+5 Combo 10.4-#93 on Best Love Stories List
From Post 30Ed wrote: "10.9 Realistic Ratings
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
although on assignment..it is also on the Canon.
Review
I was expecting something much lighter. I guess expec..."
+5 Combo 20.1-Charles Dickens' London novels have been listed as accepted for 20.1.
20.9 Winnie-the-Pooh (1882-1956)The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
published 1897
I enjoyed the read and the disruption of the English countryside by science in the wrong hands.
The pacing was interesting, with the original slower reveal of the situation changing into a mad rush, interspersed with moments of explanation. I found the explanations of the imaginary science to be interesting, particularly since they were delivered in a situation where we kept being reminded of the dramatic tension that was also going on.
Wells does a great job of conveying the effects of an invisible man, both to him and to others. And the latter see-saws between the absurd and the harmful. As the book moves forward though, it's the chilling personality of Griffin that gives the story shape and makes it memorable beyond its initial premise.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 oldies
+10 combo 10.3 (#5 on list), 10.9 (3.60)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 350
Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "10.9Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
+10 task
+5 series (Uglies book 2)
task total: 15
grand total: 190"
+5 Combo 10.4-#93 on Best Love Stories List"
Can I move this to 10.4 then and still get the compounding points for Specials?
One way or another, I'd like to move it to 10.4 - didn't even see it on the list.
Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "20.5 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
+20 task
+5 oldies (1985)
+5 combo (20.7 - #1)
task total: 30
grand total: 235"
Sorry, again, Heather. Th..."
No problem - It just boggles me that this book is YA.
20.8 Best of 2015from NPR list
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
I’ll state right off that I really enjoyed this book (so you know where I stand – there seems to be a love/hate relationship with this book in the reviews). Anyhow, it’s a fast paced story (which I was slightly unprepared for at the beginning) of a young woman with talent and beauty who has a serendipitous and meteoric rise to TV fame. I liked the main character a lot, she is determined and seemingly fearless in achieving her dream, without stepping on others along the way. It is a funny, heartfelt and thought provoking (ie. it really wasn’t that long ago that homosexual activity was illegal in Britian – within my life time). There are also sad undertones, and because of this the characters feel quite fleshed out. I think the story appealed to me because TV’s rise (and decline) has occurred in my lifetime and has had such a large cultural impact. Hornby knows how to write a contemporary story, and I found it to be a fun, fast read
20 task
5 real rating 3.38
10 review
____
35
Running total 265
20.8 Best of 2015Descent by Tim Johnston
Review:
It was a parent's worst nightmare. The Courtland family was vacationing in the Colorado Rockies when their 18-year-old daughter Caitlin went out on a morning run. Her younger brother, following her on his bike, was hit by a car and Caitlin was abducted.
We next see the heartbroken family one year later, their lives shattered since Caitlin disappeared. The father is drinking too much. The mother, who was already emotionally fragile, has fallen apart. The brother, mending from the accident, suffers from survivor's guilt. The story is told from the perspectives of all the family members.
The setting in the Rockies is gorgeous, but very dangerous with so many places where someone can disappear. The cover of "Descent" describes it as a "literary thriller" since it is written beautifully. The first part of the book tends to be more character-driven. Then the plot quickens in the second half to a "can't put the book down" ending.
+20 task (on NPR list)
+10 review
+15 combos (10.2 Noel, 10.9 Realistic Rating 3.64, 20.1 Grazia Deledda approved)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 180
15.2 Book DominoesEat First, Talk Later by Beth Yahp
+15 Task (both authors, 15.1 & 15.2, reside in Australia)
Post Total: 15 points
Total points: 435 points
20.1-Grazia Deledda (1926)-Fire And Ice by Dana Stabenow
I enjoyed the book. The mystery was well developed and fit well with interconnected nature of the people in such a sparsely populated area. The ending was satisfying while leaving me wondering how Liam was going to fit in the long run – as in the rest of the series. The story was very rooted in the Alaskan Bush. It’s always nice to read a location-specific story that couldn’t have simply happened elsewhere. I could definitely tell why it qualified for this task.
The book started out fast and I felt rushed into everything along with Liam, the protagonist. That’s a good rush by the way, part of the point was to take off running. Although it was a bit disconcerting to be dropped into the middle of Liam and Wy’s relationship and the moment of driven, um, intimacy near the beginning of the book at the same time as being dropped into the plot, even though I could see why the author did it that way.
+20 task
+10 review
+15 combo 10.9 (3.77), 10.8 (born in Alaska), 10.2 (no L)
+5 series
Task total: 50
Grand total: 400
20.1 Grazia DeleddaBlood Harvest by S.J. Bolton
I was really excited to find a reference for this book as having a sense of place, because I am a huge fan of Bolton's writing and think that is one of the things she does best. This book, in particular, does a great job evoking a small English country village that is both modern day and not quite right, in a terrifying and very old-world kind of way. The Fletcher family has just moved to this village, building a house overlooking the churchyard. At the same time, a new vicar arrives to reopen a church that has been closed for years. Both sets of newcomers start to realize that something is very wrong, as the Fletcher kids start to see a girl roaming around the churchyard at night and eerie things start to happen. The twists at the end left me breathless and eager to finish.
+20 task
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 170
20.1 Grazia Deledda- single title approved in help threadFoundation by Isaac Asimov
I enjoyed it, but not gushingly. This particular volume felt incomplete because it was a collection of connected short stories moving forward through time where I expected a novel. Of course, it's the first in a trilogy, so that's not too much of a detriment.
I did enjoy the progression forward through time of a plan being set and then future generations needing to deal with new challenges that were related to their personal survival and their belief that that the success of the overall plan was the appropriate outcome. Each of the driving main characters had additional concerns appropriate to their time.
The writing style is sparse, but very readable. I found the technology usage to still be believable, as long as I considered "nucleics" to refer to something similar but not the same as what we would consider the use of nuclear energy. The word was really just a stand-in for "very useful power/weapons source". And the main protagonist was clear enough I could see them each time. The supporting characters were more sketched in, but that didn't diminish the story for me.
+20 task
+20 combo 20.9 (1951), 10.2 (No L), 10.3 (Sci-fi), 10.8 (Russian born)
+10 Review
+5 oldies (1951)
+5 series, book 1
Task total: 60
Grand total: 460
20.8 Best of 2015Uprooted by Naomi Novik
960 Lexile
+20 Task: NPR list
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Noel, Noel
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 380
10.8 Winter SolsticeThe Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
950 lexile
Review:
This was a fun read. I found Flavia both creepy and compelling in approximately equal parts. A know-it-all eleven year old who puts poison ivy in her sister's lipstick? But a courageous and somewhat charming detective. I was glad that I was listening to this as an audiobook because it allowed me to listen gloss over some of the long chemistry descriptions that were of little interest and to really hear the book in Flavia's voice. The narrator did an excellent job capturing the voice. I couldn't help comparing Flavia to the girl in We Have Always Lived in the Castle, maybe with a bit more Anne of Green Gables mixed in. I'll definitely listen to the next book in the series.
+10 Task (Canada)
+10 Review
+5 Series
+10 Combo (10.9 - 3.79; 20.1 - approved in help thread)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 210
Heather wrote: "Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "10.9Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
+10 task
+5 series (Uglies book 2)
task total: 15
grand total: 190"
+5 Combo 10.4-#93 on Best Love S..."
I have moved it and it will compound the series points (same series, different task).
Katy wrote: "20.1 Grazia DeleddaBlood Harvest by S.J. Bolton
I was really excited to find a reference for this book as having a sense of place, because I am a huge fan of Bol..."
+5 Combo 10.9-3.93 avg rating
10.7 Cozy HolidaysA Murder Is Announced byAgatha Christie
+10 task
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.9)
+5 Oldies (published 1950)
+5 Series (Miss Marple)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 250
10.9 Realistic RatingsWinter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik
Review:
Gopnik presented a series of lectures. This book is a written version of those lectures. He calls it cultural observations themed around winter. His winters are about snow and ice. He grew up in Montreal after all. He starts with the mini ice age and the arrival of central heat, which he thinks changed our perception of winter. We could stand in a mini Serengeti and look through the glass at winter. We could venture out knowing that we could return to safety. He explores the artistic representations of winter from that time, pictorial and written. Then he moves on to the polar expeditions in radical and permanent winter. He discusses the development of our current Christmas celebrations. He takes up recreational winter, mainly looking at urban winter recreation--skating and hockey. And then he explores what it might mean to us if we loose winter via climate change.
His oservations are interesting and thought provoking. Sometimes it is obvious that this was originally conceived as something to be spoken. There are sentences with asides that are hard to follow on the page. He is so enthusiastic about hockey and its history that I expect in person he could have carried me through that portion of the book where I lost interest.
I live in an area, western Oregon, where winter (and fall and spring) mean rain with only very occasional appearances of snow and ice, and where winter recreation usually involves driving an hour or so to the mountains. So Gopnik is writing about a form of winter that is different than my experience.
+10 task (3.87 rating)
+5 combo 10.2
+10 review
Task total : 25
Grand total: 95
15.5 - DominoesThe Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
+15 task (same first name as 15.4 post 148)
Task total: 15
RwS Total: 105
Dominoes Total: 75
Grand Total: 180
Task 10.9 Realistic Ratings The Highly Effective Detective (The Highly Effective Detective #1) (2006) by Rick Yancey
+10 Task
+05 Series
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 130 + 15 = 145
10.8 Winter Solstice (Rebekah's Task)Death at Sandringham House by C.C. Benison
+10 Task: Born in Canada
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 Realistic Ratings: 3.72
+ 5 Series
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 400
10.8 - Winter SolsticeThe Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
+10 task (Toews was born in Canada)
+ 5 combo (10.9 - Realistic Ratings)
task total: 15
grand total: 80
10.5 Favorite AuthorsThe Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope
Trollope begins in his usual way by dedicating one of several initial chapters to establishing his characters and their situation. My first reaction while reading these first half dozen chapters is that this relatively early novel was not going to be as good as his later ones, but this from the introduction reflects my thoughts exactly.
Trollope himself liked the work well: —That love-scene, which comes late in the novel, is one of the best I have read by Trollope. Though he writes with feeling, rarely does he bring any volume of tears and in that he certainly did. But Trollope also dripped with sarcasm and wrote with a very broad brush.
" The plot is not as good as that of The Macdermots; nor are any characters in the book equal to those of Mrs. Proudie and the Warden; but the work has a more continued interest, and contains the first well-described love-scene that I ever wrote."
He was a Vice-President of the Caledonian, English, Irish, and General European and American Fire and Life Assurance Society; such, at least, had been the name of the joint-stock company in question when he joined it; but he had obtained much credit by adding the word "Oriental," and inserting it after the allusion to Europe; he had tried hard to include the fourth quarter of the globe; but, as he explained to some of his friends, it wouold have made the name too cumbrous for the advertisements.It has been said that this is Trollope's most auto-biographical novel. Certainly it reflects his life situationally in that he worked for the Civil Service while becoming a writer. C.P. Snow has suggested that John Eames, in The Small House at Allington is more like Trollope himself than Charley Tudor in this. Perhaps there is something of him in both. This builds to the end, and I give it a high four stars.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.9 - 3.79)
+15 Oldies (pub 1858)
+ 5 Jumbo (648 pgs)
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 140
20.6 Sventlana AlexievichThe Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
+20 pts - Task
+ 5 pts - Combo (20.9)
+ 5 ts - Oldies (1947)
Task Total - 30 pts
Grand Total - 235 pts
15.5 DominoesDon't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style by Randy Olson
Same title word as Letters to a Young Scientist
+15 Task
Grand total: 475
10.10 Group ReadsThe Inverted World by Christopher Priest
+10 task
+10 combo (10.3, 10.9 - 3.86)
Grand total 20
20.7 Svetlana AlexievichDoctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
+20 task
+10 combo (10.2, 10.4 (#74))
+5 jumbo (592 pp)
+5 oldie (p. 1957)
Task total 40
Grand total 60
20.7 FeminismThe Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambly
+20 task
+10 combo (10.3, 10.9 (3.93))
+5 series (Sun Wolf and Starhawk)
Task total 35
Grand total 95
20.1. Grazia DeleddaSkeleton Man by Tony Hillerman
On list in thread
+20 pts - task
+ 5 pts. - combo (10.9 - 3. 9 stars)
+ 5 pts. - series
Task total - 30 pts
Grand Total - 265 pts
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Reading with Style
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Harry Brandt (other topics)
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Alex Berenson (other topics)
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Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass
+15 Task published in the same decade as 15.2 (2000-2009)
Grand Total: 70