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WI 15-16 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 15/16
20.9 Winnie the PoohGaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
All my life, I had thought I had read this book already! But when I began reading it this month, I realized I hadn't - and what a nice surprise! I will definitely pick up more Sayers. In this story, Lord Peter Wimsey helps Harriet Vane, his heretofore-unrequited love, solve a case of increasingly malicious and dangerous pranks being played at Shrewsbury, a fictional all-women's college of Oxford. There were a couple great things about this book. First, she evokes Oxford beautifully. I spent a summer there once and, at least to me, she really captured the feeling of the place. Second, the plot was pleasantly puzzling. I was consistently intrigued trying to figure out the solution. Finally, there are plenty of details woven through the story that were interesting outside of the mystery - like details of how women's higher education was perceived, or details of English life in the 1930s. Highly recommended!
+20 task (pub. 1935)
+10 combo (10.4 - #283 on list; 20.1)
+10 review
+10 oldies (1935)
+5 jumbo (501 pages)
+5 series (#12 in Lord Peter Wimsey series)
Task Total: 60
Grand Total: 235
15.4 DominoesZoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French
+15 task-- same word in the title "story " as 15.3
Grand Total: 110
10.1 Design Your Own Task - Read a book published in the 1990'sThe Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
I had no expectations about this book. I picked it up because I needed a book set in high school to complete another challenge. Although I enjoyed the book... I felt somewhat frustrated. The book is essentially a long set of letters that 16 year-old Charlie sends to someone who isn't revealed to the reader. AND, Charlie doesn't reveal to the person who is receiving the letters who he is.... although he should be able to figure it out if he is at all connected to the characters at Charlie's high school. Charlie is very smart...but also very shy. It is quite apparent that he's not the typical teenager. Although there are hints... we never truly learn whats wrong with Charlie...thus the major part of my frustration... but that is probably my hangup...and obviously not the point of the novel. The reader gets a good take on the issues high schoolers deal with these days. One of my other issues is that in the beginning of the book, I felt that Charlie's acquaintances were treating him as more of a harmless pet... and yet near the middle and end he's treated as more of an equal even though his eccentricities have become more pronounced. The reader is left worried about Charlie's future.
I really wish GR used a 10 star system. 3 seems to low and 4 seems to high. I'd give it a 7 on a scale of 10.
Task +10
Review +10
Total =20
Grand Total = 340
15. 4 DominoesThe Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
(same birth decade as 15.3, see message 11 in Domino plan thread)
15 task
____
15
Running total 280
20.1 Grazia DeleddaThe Farm by Tom Rob Smith
I bumped this to the top of my list after reading the group's reviews - and I, too, had the experience of racing right through this book. It's a compelling read. It's hard to sum up without spoilers, but in short, Daniel's parents, who recently moved to rural Sweden, contact him out of the blue, each with a different agenda. His father wants to tell him that his mother has been committed to a psychiatric ward; his mother tells him she's on the way to London with evidence of a dark and dangerous conspiracy. Much of the book is hearing the mom's story and evidence, punctuated by moments of tension that were surprisingly effective, considering that remote storytelling isn't an easy method to use to build tension. Partway through, I began to wonder if this would be a gaslighting story, an unreliable narrator story, a twist ending...and yet with all that wondering, the ending still managed to surprise me.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.9 - 3.52, 10.10)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 280
10.9 Realistic RatingsThe Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts
Review
This is a very cute book for the Christmas season. This young woman Kiley, buys a snow globe. The image she sees in the snow globe leads her to a new romance. She gives it to her friend and she sees something different in the snow globe and that image comes true. It gets passed to another friend and the image she sees in the snow globe comes true. I thought it was a nice book for the Christmas season. It is a short quick read that puts you in the Christmas spirit. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I thought it had a nice story and a feel good sense when you finished reading it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a holiday read.
Task +10
Style + 10 Review
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 60
10.5 Favorite Authors (a.k.a. Moderator Gift)The Project50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every "Task" into a Project That Matters! by Tom Peters
The book is inspiring but feels over the top, although Peters' point is that there is no such thing because you are going after Wow!
I enjoy reading about where that kind of enthusiasm can take you. He uses great language and stories. I appreciate the core thought - that any task can be made into a meaningful chance to make a difference and matter at work. But not everything that needs to be done deserves this level of commitment and energy. Prioritizing is not really a topic he discusses because that's not his mission. It's just hard for me personally to read the book without the but..but..but.. part of my brain kicking in.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo 10.2 No L
Task total: 25
Grand total: 500
10.3 Science Fiction DayThe War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Review:
"The War of the Worlds" is an exciting first-person narration of a man who witnessed the Martians invading the Earth. Cylinders containing the Martians were shot from Mars and landed in England. The British army was defenseless against the Martian Tripods, three-legged fighting machines fitted out with a Heat-Ray and chemical "Black Smoke". The book was written in 1898, prior to World War I, but the Martian weapons were similar to lasers and chemical warfare. Wells uses the ideas of Darwin to describe the Martians who had evolved to possess huge brains.
Great Britain was a colonial power when this book was published, so it was a turnabout to read that Great Britain was being attacked by a civilization far superior in technology. Streams of refugees were fleeing from the invaders. Rumors and confusion existed in the era before rapid communication.
It's not surprising that "The War of the Worlds" has been adapted into films, comic books, games, and radio dramas. People thought that a 1938 radio drama by Orson Welles was a genuine news broadcast which incited panic in some American listeners. This science fiction classic is full of suspense and kept my interest.
+10 task (#5 on list)
+10 review
+10 oldie (pub 1898)
+10 combo (10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.77; 20.9 Winnie the Pooh)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 220
20.2 - Sigrid UndsetThe Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader
(set in England in 1255)
+20 task
+5 combo (10.9 - Realistic Ratings (3.58))
task total: 25
grand total: 105
15.5 - DominoesSlightly Married by Mary Balogh
+15 task (same author first name as 15.4)
Task total: 15 points
Grand total: 220 points
10.5 - Favorite AuthorsTexas Destiny by Lorraine Heath
This was my first non-Regency by Lorraine Heath and wow, she did a great job.
The good:
- If you like your romances on the more "gentle", not-so-steamy side this is the book for you. Lots of looks, conversation, some kissing, and one tasteful sex scene.
- The tension! After Dallas goes and breaks his leg he sends his brother Houston to pick up his mail order bride. Houston and Amelia start off on the wrong foot but the three week ride back to the ranch gives them lots of time to know each other. And talk. And woah, look at her hair. ;)
- The characters are wonderfully developed, and even those that only grace a few pages have personality and a back story. I can't wait to read the other brothers' stories, especially Austin.
The not-so-good:
- The setting felt like it came from Western movies I saw more than any description Heath provided. It just felt... flat. Oh geez, that's a pun but it's accurate.
- I generally like tortured heroes but Houston felt a little one-note at the end there.
- The last quarter or so started to drag but that may have been me, as there's certainly action right up to the end.
All in all a lovely novel by one of my favorite romance writers.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 series
Task total: 25 points
Grand total: 245 points
10.10. Group ReadsBefore You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
+10 pts - task
+ 5 pts - combo (10.9 - 3.4)
Task total - 15 pts
Grand Total - 280 pts
15.5 DominoesThe Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore
Author first name is Susan like the previous book. See post # 6 in Domino Plan thread
Task- 15 pts
Grand Total - 295 pts
15.6 Book DominoesThe 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People by David Niven
published same decade of Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style
+20 task
Grand total: 520
10.9 Realistic Ratings (Cory Day's Task)The Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon
It was okay. I'm seriously debating if I want to bother to read the third in the trilogy or not. There's nothing obviously wrong with the story and it moved well enough and the characters are fine. This version of modern-day Fey/fairy politics is interesting and those portions really add to the story. But the unformed nature of the quest the main character is on doesn't resonate well for me, even though I think it's supposed to reflect how things might develop in real life and, as a secondary character says later, the point of the Warders is to go solve problems for which there is no right answer. I also somehow felt a little cheated near the end when a particular black and white choice is not solved exactly, but diverted.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 series (#2 but first I've read in this challenge)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 545
10.7 Cozy HolidaysThe Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
This was one of my favorites in the Mrs. Pollifax series that I've been re-reading over the past few months. Mrs. Pollifax, intrepid NJ garden club leader and CIA spy, heads to Bulgaria with forged passports for Underground resistance members, and ends up, of course, embroiled in much more. The formula is predictable but pleasant and engaging. I read this one on an airplane and it was perfect for that type of reading – fun, interesting, but not too taxing. This time through the series, I'm also realizing how much about the countries Mrs. Pollifax visits I don't actually know, and am interested to learn more about Bulgaria's history.
+10 task (14 users tagged)
+5 combo (20.10)
+10 review
+5 oldies (pub. 1971)
+5 series (#3 in Mrs. Pollifax series)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 315
20.4 Elfriede JelinekInkdeath by Cornelia Funke
I am very glad this is over. I am not saying that it wasn't an enjoyable read, but this series went a seriously large number of pages too long.
I had originally started reading this as I had enjoyed the film. The first book was fun, but not as good as the book, I think because there was too much story.
The second book began to drag. There were too many characters, too many streams of the story to follow.
The third book was much the same. Characters coming into the story ( even new characters being introduced in the last quarter of the book ), characters returning (from the dead), and whilst some of these were welcome, it was still just too much.
I couldn't see just where this was going to go to resolve itself, which is always nice. Even the "writer" of the story could see that the Inkworld had taken on a life of its own and no one could really control what the outcome would be.
Enjoyable, but perhaps two books too long as a series.
+20 task
+5 series
+5 combo
+10 review
+5 combo ( 10.9 - rated 3.92 )
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 180
10.9 - Realistic RatingsBirds of Prey by J.A. Jance
+10 task
+5 combo (10.2)
+10 series (#15)
Task total: 25
Grand total:40
10.2 - Noel, NoelDesert Heat by J.A. Jance
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9)
+5 series (#1)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 60
10.9 Realistic RatingsTombstone Courage by J.A. Jance
+10 task
+5 combo (10.2)
+10 series (#2)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 85
10.2 - Noel, NoelShoot Don't Shoot by J.A. Jance
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 100
10.9 Realistic RatingsTea to Go by Sheila Horgan
+10 task
+5 series (#6)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 115
20.8 Best of 2015 Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
+20 Task: NPR
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 - Realistic Ratings
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 425
20.9 Winnie-the-Pooh High Rising by Angela Thirkell
+20 Task: 1933
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 - Realistic Ratings
+ 5 Series
+10 Oldies: 1933
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 465
10.9 - Realistic RatingsElizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
Maud is convinced her friend Elizabeth has gone missing, and by following the notes she’s written for herself, she repeatedly visits Elizabeth’s empty house and tries to get help to find her.
What has happened to Elizabeth? What is happening to Maud, who sometimes doesn’t recognise her own daughter? And what happened to Maud’s older sister Sukey, who disappeared over 60 years ago? Are Elizabeth and Sukey linked, or is Maud’s disintegrating mind creating a fantasy mystery in the present out of a real mystery in the past – or vice versa?
This is the unreliable narrator at its most unreliable, as Maud cannot be relied on to tell past from present or remember the attempts she has already made to find her lost loved ones. And because she’s old and forgetful, nobody takes her seriously.
I found this funny, heartwarming and heartwrenching all at the same time. For me it didn’t really need the mystery(-ies) – it was an amazing portrait of a disintegrating mind without that. I wasn’t surprised to read that both of the author’s grandmothers suffered from dementia, because it feels so real. There are things here that I felt the author must have witnessed.
+10 task (rating 3.71)
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 645
10.10 - Group ReadsThe Inverted World by Christopher Priest
On a planet with a bizarrely-shaped sun, a whole mechanical city has to be pulled along tracks that are laid and pulled up as it passes, or dire consequences will ensue.
When Helward Mann is made an apprentice Future Surveyor, he’s looking forward to being out there planning the best route for the city to follow. It’s tough keeping it on track close to the optimum point in the time-space continuum. It’s even harder to keep the oath he swore to tell no one about his work – especially when it’s his new wife who’s asking the questions.
This is an SF classic with a twist, that I’d never heard of before it was selected as a group read. I enjoyed it a lot and I’m grateful to have had the chance to read it.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.3, 10.9)
+5 oldies (1974)
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 680
Task 10.3 – Science Fiction DayJanuary 2 is National Science Fiction Day. Read one of the top Science Fiction authors listed on Ranker.com
December 27, 2015: #125
Golden Girl (The American Fairy #2) (2013) by Sarah Zettel
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 145 + 10 = 155
From Post 293Coralie wrote: "10.7 Cozy Holidays
A 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 ..."
+5 Combo 10.9-3.93 avg rating
From Post 298Claire wrote: "10.8 - Winter Solstice
The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
+10 task (Toews was born in Canada)
+ 15 combo (10.5 - Favorite Authors, 10.9 - Realistic Ratings, 20.5 - ..."
Sorry, Claire, 10.5 is not eligible to be claimed for combo and I do not see this book on the list of either of the awards for 20.5.
From Post 303Kath wrote: "20.7 Svetlana Alexievich
Doctor 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"
+5 Combo 10.8 (Russia)
Kath wrote: "10.10 Group ReadsThe Inverted World by Christopher Priest
+10 task
+10 combo (10.3, 10.9 - 3.86)
Grand total 20"
+5 Oldies
Kath wrote: "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"
+5 Oldies
10.3 Science Fiction DayThe Human Division by John Scalzi
+10 task (#53 on list)
+5 Series (Old Man's War)
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 260
10.2Symbiont by Mira Grant
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9)
+5 jumbo (518 pages)
+5 series (Parasitology #2)
task total: 25
grand total: 260
20.6 Svetlana AlexievichChild 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Review:
The paranoia and senselessness of Stalinist Russia envelops the reader in this book that manages to combine a serial killer detective story with historical fiction with true crime. I picked this up after reading and enjoying The Farm by the same author. The books are totally different from one another, but both manage to build suspense and tell a great story and both capture their respective atmospheres (here, Russia; there, Sweden). This book is way outside my normal reading choices which rarely turn to serial killers or to spy novels or to books set in Russia. But I'm very tempted to immediately read the next in the trilogy. I've become attached to these characters and completely intrigued by the setting. Highly recommended if you can stomach the senseless violence of the regime and the grimness of the setting and the relatively grisly descriptions of child murders.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 series
+5 combo (20.1 - approved in help thread)
+5 jumbo (509 pgs)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 255
Post 331 Norma wrote: "10.9 - Realistic RatingsTraditional Tea by Sheila Horgan
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 125"
Norma, I'm sorry, but this has an average rating of 4.00 and doesn't fit 10.9.
10.9 - Australia DayTrue History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
I went to the library to pick up another book for this task, and spotted this one on the shelf. It looked fun so I took them both!
Ned Kelly was a famous Australian outlaw who became a folk hero. This is his story, purportedly in his own words, written for an unborn child who is not known to have existed.
It's a fun and rollicking story, implying that Kelly's Irish convict ancestry and the loss of his father when he was 12 both contributed to his 'freedom fighter' style. His attitude is that he's defending himself and his family, and if he hadn't been demonized by the state because of his family's past history, and impoverished by the unfair system in which the first settlers or squatters in Australia became rich at the expense of later settlers [and indigenous people, of course - but that isn't a focus here], he might have been a good law-abiding member of society.
There's a vaguely Oedipal theme, as a lot of his motivation is to protect his mother (from jail, from poverty or from her suitors of whom, of course, he doesn't approve). But as one character says near the end, "it is most bracing and engaging".
+10 task (Qld & Vic)
+10 review
+5 combo (10.9)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 705
10.3 - Science Fiction DayDoomsday Book by Connie Willis
At Oxford in the mid 21st century, historians don’t just study the past by reading books. They travel back in time and find out what things were really like.
Kivrin has convinced the acting head of department to let her travel back to the 14th century. She’s aiming for 1320, but something goes wrong and she arrives in 1348, with the Black Death about to hit England. At the same time, a deadly flu epidemic breaks out in the 21st century. Has a medieval virus travelled the other way? Whatever it is, the sickness of the key technician means there’s no one to bring Kivrin back.
I was gripped by this from the beginning, and found it hard to put down. It starts relatively slowly (and could have been much better if Willis had known about mobile phones), but it becomes a harrowing story as people begin to die of the flu epidemic in the 21st century, and the plague arrives in the village where Kivrin is staying. I loved it and definitely want to read the next in the series.
Note: this doesn't qualify for 20.2. I counted pages as I read, and only 58% is set in the middle ages.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 series
+5 jumbo (578 pages)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 735
20.6 Svetlana AlexievichSelected Poems of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova
I didn't think I would complete this one. For me, poetry is the hardest of texts to read and absorb myself into. Honestly, I just don't seem to be able to grasp it.
This collection wasn't easy. Too many references I was unfamiliar with, places and other readings. I had to keep referring to the notes for clarity, which made for very disjointed reading.
However, what was clear was that it was not safe to be a poet, or any kind of artist, during the period of Akhmatova's life. Many poems are dedicated or written about friends who were imprisoned ( including her son), or executed.
I haven't given any stars to this read, as I am really unsure how I could rate it given that I don't think I grasped enough from it.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.8, 20.4)
Task Total = 40
Grand Total = 220
15.5 DominoesThe Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
(same citizenship as 15.4 - US; see message 11 in Domino plan thread)
15 task
___
15
Running total: 295
15.4 – DominoesTelegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
+15 task- same first name as book 3
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 275
15.6 - DominoesLandfalls by Naomi J. Williams
+15 task (author born in same decade, ie 1960s, as 15.5 post 295)
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
RwS Total: 105
Dominoes Total: 100
Grand Total: 205
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Night Ranger (other topics)The Drop (other topics)
Shoot the Dog (other topics)
The Whites (other topics)
Between the World and Me (other topics)
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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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The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
I didn't even look at what this one was about when I bought it, I just knew it was a Winterson I didn't have. So, I was surprised to see later that it was a publishing collaboration with Hammer Films, one of the favourite production houses of my husband and daughter, not really surprised that Winterson would write a book about witches and the Lancashire witch trials, but surprised to see the name Alice Nutter, who I had thought I had been introduced to this year through Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch ( obviously not, as the first names are different But, when you are lying around reading on the beach, how are you to know?!)
Slow to get into, it probably wasn't until Alice is protecting the Jesuit, Kit, and tells her back story that things really pick up and become engaging. From there things move at a rollicking pace - is Alice really a witch or not ? How old is she ? Did she, or did her lover Elizabeth sell her soul to the Devil?
Several real life ( besides the witches) characters appear in this story - John Dee and Shakespeare among them.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 - rated 3.33)
+10 review
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 135