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FA 18 Completed Tasks
15.9 - AbBYDate Range 1966 - 1970
Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath
+45 (author born 1970)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 465
10.6 NoirYou Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
I've read two of Abbott's noir books so far this season and quite enjoyed them. This one isn't noir (set in the present day, revolves around a gymnastics prodigy and her family), but it still includes all of the best parts of her noir: strong female characters, tightly wound suspense, shocking revelations delivered in a gloriously understated manner. I loved the slow unfolding of the truth--it was brilliantly paced.
Devon is the rockstar of her gymnastics community and all of the other gymnasts, parents (not just her parents--ALL the parents), coaches hang on her every move. She's a good kid: focused, dedicated, hard-working, talented. Everyone is training for a big meet (a crucial one for Devon), when someone in their tight-knit gym-family dies under mysterious circumstances and causes turmoil in entirely unforeseen ways. That's the best way to describe it, but even though Devon is the axis on which all of the characters rotate, I felt like she was almost absent for most of the book. She was talked about and observed and we even hear bits of her journal, but she felt very two-dimensional to me...which makes the way things turn out all the more shocking (I felt, anyway). Quite enjoyed this (but still like Abbott's noir better).
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total: 1685
20.9 Arkansas Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
+20 task
+ 5 oldies (published 1987)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 1065
Kate S wrote: "From Post 391Jenifer wrote: "10.1 Favorite Lists
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
+10 Task (#60 on Best Crime & Mystery Books; claimed in post 582 of summer sea..."
Thank you so much for finding all my missing points. I need to get better at finding combos!
15.9 AbBY Chronological1976-1980
The English Wife by Lauren Willig
Lauren Willig was born in 1977
Task total: 45
Season total: 410
AbBY 15.5-Reverse Chronological Order1960-1964
Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon (born 1963)
task=30
grand total= 535
10.5 Pet DayCandide by Voltaire
This whole book feels like the build up to a long joke ("Six kings walk into a bar..."), though how it can feel that way when it is filled with murder, war, rape, slavery, stolen fortunes, stolen futures, heartless Inquisitors, and pirates and, well, everything bad you can think of, I don't know how it's possible. Perhaps the joke is on on us: despite all of the horrors and things lost along the way, Candide maintains that "this is the best of all possible worlds." (It's so funny: when I first read this years ago, I felt like that statement was made somewhere in every single chapter, that it was the main theme of the book, that this book could not exist without that sentence--now, with Kindle, I can instantly find out exactly how many times it was said: FOUR?!)
The closest thing I can equate this to is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels on fast-forward. Every chapter is a step in Candide's journey to be reunited with his love, Cunegonde. It's a ridiculously quick read and quite funny (sadly, much of the contemporaneous satire is lost to time, despite the footnotes' attempt to make sense of it), though perhaps I enjoyed it because we have a history ("this is the best of all possible world" may or may not have been my tongue-in-cheek personal motto my freshman year as a result of reading this...).
+10 Task (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...)
+10 Review
+20 Oldies (first pub. 1759)
+5 Combo (20.7)
Task total: 45
Season total: 1730
20.6 The Stone CarversBring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2)
+15 prizeworthy
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 450
10.3 Real PlaceA Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea by Eunsun Kim
"Eunsun Kim" (she said in the forward that she couldn't use her real name or the real names of several characters in order to protect family still in North Korea) has lived a tremendous life: her grandparents and father died in the great famine in the 1990s leaving her mother, older sister, and herself to fend for themselves. In order to escape starvation, her mother makes the bold decision to escape North Korea.
I can't wrap my head around the courage that would take: to have NOTHING--no money, no food, no home or assets to sell, no transportation, no familial support--except for love of your children and sheer courage to escape a murderous regime.
This was a truly incredible story and an eye-opening look at the isolationist country.
While I responded to the story itself, the story telling (the text of the book itself, which is what I am rating) itself was not very good, thus the 3 star review.
+10 Task ("North Korea")
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.5: her mother was single, widowed head of household--at one point she was sold to a man who wanted her to bear his son, but he never married her and they were attached to his household for only a short time; 20.10: A thoUsand mIles tO frEedom)
Task total: 30
Season total: 1760
10.5 Pet DayThe House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
+10 Task: The House of the Spirits Black Swan
+10 Prizeworthy (2)
+ 5 Oldies (1982)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 650
10.9 9, 10, 11 (Norma's Task via Rebekah)Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
+10 Task: 870 Lexile
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Next? (3 books planned)
+ 5 Jumbo
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 670
15.3 AbBY Chronological1941-1945 Pat Barker
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
+15 Task (author born 1943)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 645
20.5 Singled OutThe Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
+20 Task: Clare is a widow (view spoiler).
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 665
20.7 A Month in the CountryBrother by David Chariandy
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.4 Birdsong (two time periods 10 years apart)
+10 Prizeworthy (2+)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 700
10.4 Bookshelves The Vegetarian by Han Kang
+10 task (on 21st century Literature’s bookshelf)
+ 10 Combo 10.9, 20.7
+ 5 Prizeworthy
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 1090
10.4 BookshelvesSlade House by David Mitchell
I was looking at the 21st Century Literature book list and comparing it to what was available as an audiobook from my library and this was the first book I found where those two lists collided. I knew nothing about this book, have never read anything by David Mitchell, and was utterly unprepared for what I heard therein. It was amazing! Perfect for this time of year (a little spooky, bordering on scary), it was a little Neil Gaiman, bits of House of Leaves, and one of the extra-long episodes of Doctor Who all wrapped into one.
(view spoiler) I got wrapped up in the world quite quickly and thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns that the author threw my way.
+10 Task (on 21st Century Literature list)
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.5--https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... 20.4: each chapter is in a different time period, total spanning 50 years; 20.5--Norah is single, never married, head of her own household)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1795
15.5 AbBYChronological, 1931-1935
A Dry White Season by André Brink
+30 Task (b. 1935)
Season total = 520
20.9 ArkansasElla Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
#242 on the list
This is an amusing, light novel told in letters about letters! The fictitious island community, Nollop, is presented as a closed (maybe utopian) society without modern communication devices (eg. telephones, email). The memorial cenotaph that contains the pangram of Nevin Nollop starts dropping letters. The Island Council take this as a sign, from the long dead Nollop, that those letters are not to be used any longer. Of course, we can see what a ridiculous belief this is. The Councillors use this to wield complete power over the citizens and use statutes and thugs to oppress. The lsland becomes a totalitarian state.
This is a short book so Dunn (the author) doesn’t go into depth, but we see how people fall prey to spying on their neighbours or feeling powerless against the edicts of the Council, and how power can go to people’s heads. This aspect elevates the novel from just being a quirky writing exercise. 3*
20 task
10 review
5 prize
____
35
Running total: 515
20.6 The Stone CarversJamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
+20 Task (2011)
+5 Combo (10.9 Menagerie)
Points this post: 25
RwS total: 220
AbBY total: -
Season Total: 220
20.4 Slade House by David MitchellTakes place in 5 different decades.
Review: My first Mitchell and as I'm reading some of the GR reviews, maybe shouldn't have been! I didn't realize all his writings were connected. That said, Slade House works well as a stand alone novel. It requires a bit of attention and thought as you jump from time to time and character to character. Be prepared to dive into the world of the Occult without any context. The constructs are given without much detailed information and the language is unique. Each of the sections are written with individual detail and really make you feel like you are moving through time. The plot is well paced, as each chunk keeps you moving forward and gives new bits of information. I also enjoyed that bits and pieces from the past reappear later on. A good read for fall, creepy and cold.
+20 Task
+5 Combo 10.4 - 21st C. Lit list
+5 Combo 10.5 - Penguin Random House Audio
+5 Combo 20.5 - Norah= single woman, head of household
+10 Review
Task Total: 45 pts
Grand Total: 275 pts
From Post 402Ann wrote: "10.1 Favorite List
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
#29 in the list from post 454 in summer challenge:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"
Sorry, Ann the MPE of this book has too many pages for 20.7.
From Post 403Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.2 Next
Ill Met by Moonlight by Mercedes Lackey
2nd book in Doubled Edged series
Review
I am a big fan of Mercedes Lackey. This is the second book in a series called D..."
+5 Jumbo (for a total of 10) over 700 pages in MPE
15.4 Author by Birth Year - Chronological 1950-54
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
born: 1953
-> I REALLY liked this novel. If you are looking for a mystery (series) I would recommend this highly. I listened to the audio book, which was well done.
20 task
____
20
Running total: 535
From Post 431Tien wrote: "10.7 Crazy Rich Asians...Or Not! (Tien's Task)
Wildcard (Warcross #2) by Marie Lu
author born in China, as per GR profile
YA with 810L
Review
[book:Warcross|361601..."
This does not appear to qualify for 10.2
From the FAQs:
"How many books make a series? Does it have to be at least three or does a single sequel count (a two-book series) ?
A series should include at least three books. Sometimes a story is complete in two volumes, and those we don't consider a series. If there are only two published books and it is clear the author plans to continue the story, those would be a series.
Rosemary wrote: "The readerboard is showing me at 670, but I only make it 650 after the 5 points in post 422 are added. Have I gone wrong somewhere?"I found it and fixed it. You will have 20 fewer points in the next Readerboard update.
20.6 The Stone Carvers Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn
+20 task
+ 5 Combo 10.2
+ 5 Prizeworthy
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1120
10.1- Favorite ListsFrom Elizabeth(Alaska) post 135- Women in translation:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
#4 on the list: The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
No style points.
Post total: 10
10.6- NoirThe Black Echo by Michael Connelly
Task: 10
Combo: 5(10.2- new series)
Oldie: 5 pts- published in 1992
Post total: 20
20.7- A Month in the CountryA Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
using MPE- Penguin edition with 186 pages
Task: 20
Combo: 5- 10.5- Penguin
Oldies: 10 - published in 1912
Post total: 35
20.7 Month In the Country - NovellaNightflyers by George R.R. Martin
Initially, I loved this book. Martin is such a great writer. However, I found that the pacing moved too quickly and I wanted more things to be fleshed out before we reached the climax and it was over. A lot of the big twists happen really quickly and for a book that is described as having " the psychological horror of The Shining" I think it could have benefitted in playing a longer game of suspense. You really need to pay attention to who is who as the names are foreign and their specializations also alien. For all the detail he has put in to the worlds of the 7 Kingdoms, I could have used more history here as well.
This world reminds a lot of the world of Firefly, which I also love. Can you imagine if Martin and Whedon teemed up on something??
Ultimately, Nightflyers finishes as a 4 star read for me. I am interested in watching the SyFy series and seeing how they treated it for TV.
+20 Task - squeaking in with 199 pages
+5 Combo 10.5 Bantam books (chicken)
+ 5 Combo 10.9 11 letter word
+ 5 Oldies pub. 1980
+10 Review
Task Total: 45 pts
Grand Total: 320 pts
10.1 Favorite ListsFrom Ann post 790 list, https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2..., #48 on the list:
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
This is my first time reading this play...it has been years since I've seen My Fair Lady (which was based on this play) and I sure don't remember it ending this way. I also don't remember Henry Higgins being such a remarkable ASS. I mean, I remembering his being asinine, but as he's written in the play, he is a selfish, self-important, raging misanthropist (though, from his point of view he's simply pragmatic: reminds me of Sherlock Holmes in that he's so focused on his field of study that he is blind to everything and everyone, not remotely concerned with how poorly he treats people--I guess his one redeeming quality is he treats everyone the same: duchess and flower girl, they're all the same to him).
This had some interesting takes on class, relationships between men and women, and the roles of men and women in society (I was particularly saddened and frustrated by Eliza's new reality, that by educating and improving herself she had fewer options for her future than she had as a flower girl on the streets--as a refined lady, she couldn't work, couldn't go back to what she had done before, couldn't do anything other than stay in the unsatisfactory situation she found herself in or marry). The men in this play sure thought they were smart, above reproach, and infallible. I hate that Eliza was seen as a THING, if she was seen at all. She was a commodity to her father, who essentially sold Eliza to Higgins; she was merely an experiment to Henry; she was treated with kindness and respect by Colonel Pickering, but even he isn't faultless.
Despite my dislike of some of the main characters, I quite enjoyed the play as a whole.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (first pub. 1912)
+10 Combo (10.5--MPE is published by Penguin; 10.9--"Pygmalion"=9 letters)
Task total: 40
Season total: 1835
20.8 AutumnPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
+20 task
+15 oldies (pub in 1813)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 485
Post 486 Jenifer wrote: "20.8 AutumnPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
+20 task
+15 oldies (pub in 1813)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 485"
Jenifer, this edition Pride and Prejudice was published by Bantam Classics, so combo for 10.5, and "Prejudice" is 9 letters, so also a combo for 10.9.
15.6 AbBYChronological 1936-1940
The Burglar on the Prowl by Lawrence Block
+30 Task (b. 1938)
Season total = 550
10.9- 9, 10, 11 (Norma's Task via Rebekah)The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius by Andrew Robinson
I was a bit disappointed with this book. The whimsical title seemed to offer a quirky history (similar to Sarah Vowell) ...but no. Most of the history is dense despite the very interesting subject, Thomas Young. Young, indeed, was a natural genius...and his interests were so widespread that he was justifiably criticized for a lack of focus. Most of his well-known studies dealt with how light worked...and he challenged the concepts that Isaac Newton had laid down. But the author makes these chapters so dull it is amazing the book was published.
The author does a much better job in informing the reader about Young's breakthroughs on deciphering the Rosetta Stone....something for which he was not given sufficient credit for during his lifetime. The book does delve into the rivalry with a French competitor who was successful in getting most of the credit. 2 1/2 stars
task=10
combo= 5 (20.10)
review=10
task total= 25
grand total= 560
10.9 9, 10, 11 Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
+10 task
+ 5 Jumbo
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1135
20.8 AutumnA View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
In Elizabeth Taylor’s third novel, written and I assume set in the late 1940s, after the end of World War II, we have a panoramic view of a down-at-heel English seaside town with few attractions. The residents include a doctor and his writer wife (obviously modelled on Taylor to some extent, and bearing the name Beth), their two daughters, their divorced neighbour/Beth’s best friend and her young son, the young widowed owner of a waxworks, a pub and its staff, a malicious bedridden old lady and her two grownup daughters, and an elderly male would-be artist visiting the town. We hop from one perspective to another to get a feel of the lives of all these people perched as if trapped between land and sea.
I found the characters all rather unlikeable, although I had sympathy for all of them, which is a weird situation to be in as a reader. I think it brought out the ambivalence of human nature, the way everyone has some good and some bad in them, despite mostly being very self-absorbed.
There were some wonderful snarky one-liners - I wish I had written them down!
+20 Task (British author, published 1947)
+15 Combo (10.5 Penguin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5..., 20.5, 20.10)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1947)
Task Total: 50
Season Total: 740
From Post 452Valerie wrote: "20.8 Autumn
Death in the Dentist's Chair by Molly Thynne
This mystery is the group read for October in another GR group. I see my compatriots, including Elizabet..."
This should be +10 Oldies (not 5)
+5 Combo 20.1
From Post 482June wrote: "10.6- Noir
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
Task: 10
Combo: 5(10.2- new series)
Oldie: 5 pts- published in 1992
Post total: 20"
+5 Prizeworthy
From Post 483June wrote: "20.7- A Month in the Country
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
using MPE- Penguin edition with 186 pages
Task: 20
Combo: 5- 10.5- Penguin
Oldies: 10 - pu..."
+5 Combo 10.2
From Post 487Jenifer wrote: "20.8 Autumn
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
+20 task
+15 oldies (pub in 1813)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 485"
This also works for 10.4 (for a total of +15 Combo)
10.1 Favorite ListsI used the following listopia https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2... for The Handmaid's Tale in post #840 during the Summer
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is #44 on that list
I was expecting a more momentous tale from this book since it seems to be so popular. I was underwhelmed. I listened to the book in my car and the reader did a very good job... and the story is simple enough to follow.... but I kept waiting for a shoe to drop...something unexpected or more enlightening about the lives of geishas...although we do get a bit of a peek. I was disappointed. Perhaps I would have felt differently if I had read the book with different expectations. A simple read that does not compel me to read anything else by this author. 2 stars.
task=10
combo= 10 (10.5- this edition published by Seal- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... ; 20.5)
review=10
Jumbo=5 (503
task total= 35
grand total= 595
15.1 AbBY chronologic 1911-1915The Cat Who Had 14 Tales by Lilian Jackson Braun b. 1913
Lexile 810
Task +15
Season Total: 330
15.2 AbBY chronologic 1916-1920James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl b. 1916
Lexile 870
Task +20
Season Total: 350
15.3 AbBY chronologic 1921-1925Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote b. 1924
Task +20
Season Total: 370
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Big Sleep (other topics)
The Big Sleep (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Diana Gabaldon (other topics)
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
this edition https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... published by Penguin
Glad I finally read this book because somehow I always got it confused with The Bridge on the River Kwai...which I know is crazy but it is one of those mind tricks that my brain has been playing on me for years. I have a memory of having read Wilder before and really enjoying him...but I have no memory (or record) of what it was I read.
Anyway, I was not overwhelmed by this book which contemplates where acts of God intersect with acts of fate. The plot is simple: a friar in Lima, Peru decides to study the lives of 5 people who recently died when the eponymous bridge collapses. (Having recently visited Lima, it was nice to be able to draw up mental images of the cathedral, square and possible bridge location that figure in the story.) Although Wilder was no doubt aiming at the examination of human conundrums, it worked more for me as a character study in a time and place remote to me. 3 stars
task=10
review=10
combo= 10 (20.7-160p.; 20.10)
prizeworthy=5 (Pulitzer 1928)
Oldie=10 (1927)
task total=45
grand total= 505