Reading with Style discussion
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FA 18 Completed Tasks
15.5 AbBY 1931-1935Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life by
Harold S. Kushner b. 1935
Task +30
Season Total: 420
20.6 The Stone Carvers (Man Booker Long List)The Overstory by Richard Powers
“The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”
I attended a presentation by Oregon State University’s (Oregon ‘s land grant institution) Honors College on Humanities and Climate Change. When I asked the English Lit Professor who was a panelist for some book recommendations, this was top of his list.
This is about people whose lives become entangled with trees one way or another—from childhood experiences to life-altering encounters. They immediately or slowly begin to hear or comprehend from a spiritual, artistic or scientific way the amazing forest about them that is rapidly disappearing. And that in some way may be humankind’s or the earth’s hope for survival.
It is a book to take in slowly and savor. There is so much there.
+20 2018 short list
+10 review
+15 combo 20.4, 10.8, 10.9
+5 jumbo
Task total: 50
Season total: 250
15.6 AbBY chronologic 1936-1940Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis b. 1936
Task: 30
Season Total: 450
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "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 [..."
This was not my exact version but I couldn't find the exact version. The cover matches but my version was the new Audible version narrated by Rosamund Pike so I don't think I qualify for that combo point.
Jenifer wrote: "This was not my exact version but I couldn't find the exact version. The cover matches but my version was the new Audible version narrated by Rosamund Pike so I don't think I qualify for that combo point. "If you're referring to the Pet Day points, that task was for a title that any edition had been published by a publisher with an animal in its name.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Jenifer wrote: "This was not my exact version but I couldn't find the exact version. The cover matches but my version was the new Audible version narrated by Rosamund Pike so I don't think I qualif..."Oh, that's great! I need to get better at re-reading tasks. :) Thank you.
20.10 Fall Equinox (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
My first book report in grammar school was on Robinson Crusoe...and my memory is that I loved that book. Of course, I was one of many young kids who were enthralled by the adventure. As an adult, the Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a BIG disappointment. Here, Crusoe, now fairly rich, returns to his old island to bring supplies to those still living on the island...a group of Spanish soldiers and a group of English renegades. Crusoe is now recognized as a sort of Governor of the place. However, much of the work is spent on religious screeds and another large chunk is spent describing battles with the Indians from nearby islands.
It is never explained (or if it is I somehow missed it) why when Crusoe leaves his island, he doesn't take people with him. Friday is still accompanying him. Then Crusoe heads off to Madagascar where the tedious battle descriptions with the native population repeats itself. Then Crusoe travels to India, China, and Russia before returning to England 10 years after his departure.
Just two stars.
task=20
combo= 10 (10.5- this edition published by Dodo Press- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... ; 10.9,
review=10
Oldie= 20 (1719)
task total= 60
grand total= 655
20.1 War's EndA Test of Wills by Charles Todd
It's funny...I didn't think I was one for mysteries, but I find lately that I'm coming around. It started with the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series--with her lush descriptions of Three Pines, the delicious food her characters indulge in (it always makes me hungry for pastry and poutine!) (though not together, of course), and the lovely townsfolk...the murder and untangling of the whodunit seem superfluous. I started reading that series on the recommendation of my aunt who is a librarian.
Well, my aunt who is a retired English teacher recommended this mystery series to me so I had to give it a shot. As in the Penny series, I like the strong sense of place and time--the idea of using a WWI war veteran I find quite unique and interesting (view spoiler). Ian Rutledge is sent to his first post-war assignment, to investigate the murder of another war vet. The stakes are high--if he fails, he'll embarrass Scotland Yard, cause scandal at Buckingham Palace (one of the suspects has connections there), and probably end up at an asylum for "shell shock." Mostly, he wants to prove to himself that the war hasn't taken everything away from him, that he still has the understanding of human foibles and motives that made him an inspector in the first place.
I think another interesting facet of placing the stories in post-War Britain is the very staid manners and customs are changing at a pace never before seen, so we get a mix of very proper and antiquated ideas alongside more radical thoughts from the various characters we encounter (and there are A LOT of characters to keep track of).
I liked it enough to read the next one, but probably not immediately.
+20 Task (100% set in 1919)
+10 Review
+5 Prizeworthy
+15 Combo (10.2; 10.5--https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... ; 20.5--Lettice is single, head of household now that her guardian is dead which happened before the novel began)
Task total: 50
Season total: 1885
15.4 AbBYDate Range 1960-64
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
+20 Task (born 1962 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_P... )
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 760
15.7 AbBYChronological, 1941-1945
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
+30 Task (1943)
Season total = 580
(Choosing to use it here, rather than in the RwS tasks, but here is my review anyway. Thanks to all who made sure I'd get it read!)
10.3 Real PlaceLondon Bridges by James Patterson
Task +10
Combo +5 10.2 Next
Total this Post: 15
Grand Total: 90
20.3 Birds Without WingsTravels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
+20 task
+ 5 Combo 10.5 (penguin)
+ 5 Oldie (published 1969)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1165
Task 20.3 Birds without Wings Also fits #20.5 – 2 of the women live alone in their own household, one a journalist, the other a singer-dancer. This novel is ensemble, rotating between 5 main characters, and the women are 2 of the 5 main characters.
Orient Express (1932) by Graham Greene
+20 Task
+20 Combo (#10.5 Publisher: Penguin, #20.1, #20.5, #20.7)
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1868-1942)
Task Total: 20 + 20 + 10 = 50
Grand Total: 275 + 50 = 325
20.4 BirdsongThe Alice Network by Kate Quinn
This is a perfect choice for my bookclub -- strong female characters, interesting history, pat and complete resolution, nothing too deep, but enough to talk about with the group.
Overall, I liked the book--it was gripping and I liked the characters. I'm a sucker for a romantic interest with a brogue (Scottish in this instance). The ending was too neat and overly clever for its own good, but my book club will eat that right up.
The narrator was fine if somewhat unmemorable. She kept me listening through a day that involved over six hours on the road, so that means she wasn't terrible. And she had enough brogue in her voice to bring the Scottish character alive to some extent. Generally, the book translates well to audio format because it's telling the personal stories of the two main characters (Charlie in 1947 and Eve in 1915).
I'm looking forward to being able to go to book club and talk about this one. So often I am the curmudgeon who doesn't like the book we read; this time I can just complain about the ending being too cute.
+20 Task (1915/1947)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (532 pp.)
Task total: 35
Grand total (I think, after adjustments): 205
20.5 Singled OutSula by Toni Morrison
I wanted to love this. I remember reading it a long time ago and thinking it was a powerful book, but I could remember nothing about it when I saw that the author had read the audiobook version. Unfortunately, no one told Toni Morrison that she had to keep her mouth close to the microphone to get a good recording. The production quality meant that even with the volume all the way up on my phone, I often could barely make out the author's voice.
Some of the descriptions are so amazingly spot-on. The girls walking past men at an ice cream shop and feeling their eyes on them. The way that small town gossip just circulates and penetrates. The way the odds are stacked against black women.
And the language, oh, the language.
But I didn't love this the way I've really loved some of Morrison's other books. Maybe it just depressed me by showing how little has changed since this book was published in 1973. I felt like this story could have been written today with only minor changes in technology and location.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.5, 20.4, 20.7)
+5 Prizeworthy (Audie Award)
+5 Oldies (1973)
Task total: 55
Grand total: 260
10.10 Group ReadsThe House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
Big Angel knows he's going to die, but he wants to go out with a big old birthday fiesta before that happens. Of course, his mom has to go and die before his big day. That's okay, since family is coming from all over for the birthday: it'll be a combined funeral/birthday celebration! And the family that's coming--wow, the stories they have hidden inside of them.
I loved this book. It was beautifully written, relatable, real, and speaks difficult truths with compassion and humor. I loved the characters, they were fully formed and imperfect and easily identifiable--which is a feat when there is a cast of characters as large as this one. I particularly loved that it would bounce around in time, changing and deepening your perception of the characters...characters who had been built up to paragons in the community have their blemishes revealed, increasing their 3-dimensionality.
I did listen to this one (still get drowsy when I sit down to read, dumb pain meds!) and it was lovely, read by the author (which is sometimes terrible, but in this case was perfect).
+10 Task (thanks for the recommendation, Kate!)
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total: 1905
20.8 AutumnLive and Let Die by Ian Fleming
I continue to be impressed by Fleming's writing style. The plot was interesting and tense. I was also amused by Bond trying to fit as an American and changing clothes, etc, to do so and enjoyed the planning and deductions.
But what was really interesting beyond the story itself was reading the depiction of the African American "Negroes" from 60 years on. I was expecting derogatory racism. But the depiction of Harlem was like reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and how Malcolm described himself as a young man. There was an immense level of respect given for Mr. Big, even as he was depicted as a monster, and the parts about Voodoo even had Bond doing research and understanding the fear level, without derision. It was almost as if Fleming was trying to establish the validity of the story he was writing - depicting American blacks as legit characters - in the minds of his British readers who he expected would be skeptical of the concept.
The institutional racism inherent in the way the story was written is still there, of course, and the expected misogynistic view of Solitaire ending with her as Bond's flat out reward for success. But it was not what I had expected.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies (1954)
+10 combo (10.2, 10.5)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 1410
20.5 Singled OutThe Story of Helen Keller by Lorena A. Hickok
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.7 - 159)
+5 Oldies (1958)
Task total = 30
Points total = 105
10.3 AbBY Chronological
1870-74
The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (born 1870)
Task total: 20
Season total: 145
1870-74
The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (born 1870)
Task total: 20
Season total: 145
20.7 Month in CountryEvery Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
I plowed through this series one after another in audio format during some long drives. The three books that are available are each short novellas--eventually, perhaps the series will be collected into one long volume. The concept here is delightful--there are lots of doorways and passageways to all different worlds and something in certain children causes them to discover the passage to just the right world for them. This story tells of those children who went through such a door, but for one reason or another ended up back in our world despite fervently wishing to return to their fantasy world. But these fantasies aren't all candy and rainbows (though at least one is); some are darker underworlds of vampires and skeletons.
The narrator for these isn't consistent across the three books, so I just like to be warned about that going in. That works fine here since each book has a very different focus, but it can still be surprising if you've begun to associate a narrator's voice with a certain story.
+20 Task (169 pp.)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2)
+15 Prizeworthy (Hugo, Nebula, Locus)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 310
20.7 Month in CountryDown Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
This is my favorite of the three books so far in this series. I love the willingness of the author to create a world that these girls find their way to that is dark and that they nonetheless love and want to stay in. The story is wonderfully creepy and achingly emotional. Although the story is something of a prequel to the first book in the series, I think I liked it better as a follow up instead. It could be read as a stand-alone, but the books are so short, you may as well read all three.
The author does more with the characters in this book than she did with the first. In the first book, most of the oxygen was sucked up by concept and not much was left in a sub-200-pager for character development. With the addition of this novella to the first, we get to know the characters much better as well as getting much more of a feel for one of the worlds. This also builds for a strong continuation of the series as long as the author has more ideas for cool worlds to explore.
This audio was read by the author, who did a great job.
+20 Task (187 pp.)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2)
+5 Prizeworthy (ALA Alex)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 350
20.7 A Month in the CountryMem by Bethany C. Morrow
When I first read a review about this book, I was immediately drawn to the idea of memory extraction--reminded me of my favorite movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. As I started reading, there was still a very cinematic feel to it, I could clearly see everything as if I was watching a black and white movie (it is set in 1925, after all, so it seemed fitting), something along the lines of Metropolis--even though this book doesn't contain any sort of robotic/sci-fi elements, the strangeness of the technology described makes my mind go all Fritz Lang.
In the early 1900s in Montreal a technology was developed to remove a traumatic memory--but in doing so, it created a copy of the person you were in that moment, a living memory. Dolores has this done in 1909 after witnessing a car crash and Dolores Extraction No. 1 is born. Only she is different from all the earlier memories (or "Mems")--she is cognizant. She can interact outside of the confines of the memory that has been extracted. Eventually, with the help of two friends and patrons, she is able to move into her own apartment and function in society.
That is where the book starts--1925, she's been on her own for some time, when she is suddenly recalled to the Vault (the place where all Mems are housed).
There were so many philosophical questions raised in this book I don't even know where to begin--but I think that's why I enjoyed this short piece so much.
+20 Task (184 pages)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.1)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1940
20.7 Month in CountryBeneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
This was my least favorite of the three books in this series, but I still enjoyed the author's writing style and fantastical worlds. This book isn't quite creepily dark as the previous two books, but the candy-coated world featured here still has its moments. There's relatively positive discussion of body image and weight with one of the protagonists (occasionally to the point of it feeling like a single-issue defining characteristic) that was overall nice to see in a story like this one.
Also, unlike the first book that focused on concept and the second book that focused on a specific world and characters, this book is more of a quest or mission book. The group needs to go do certain tasks to try to prevent a bad thing from happening and doing so requires running around to different places to obtain the needed objects/information/etc. Quests are always in danger of becoming tiresome, but the inclusion of visits to different worlds and further explanation of the makeup of different worlds in this series's universe kept the book enjoyable.
The narrator has changed again, but was otherwise fine if somewhat less memorable than the first narrator or the author (who read the second book).
+20 Task (174 pp.)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 385
20.5 Singled OutIsland of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
I saw this book mentioned in my GR group and remembered it as one of my favorite books as a kid. Knowing I had a long drive, I downloaded the audiobook from the library and was transported back to this story for the three or four hours that the audio lasted. I will recommend this book to my nine-year-old, who has just had a class unit on survivors where they did exercises like picking which items they'd most want to have if they were marooned on an island.
Here, the heroine finds herself left behind on her island home when the rest of her tribe decides to evacuate with some white folks who show up in a ship and offer to move them to the mainland (California?).
This book has a bit of required suspension of disbelief involved--the heroine is able to make a functional bow and arrow for herself by remembering watching tribe members make them even though she never actually learned how and would have been forbidden to make such a thing by the rules of her tribe. Still, it's compelling to see her figure out how to live by herself.
The writing is sparse and the story moves along quickly; I'm not sure I would have liked this as much if it didn't come with a bunch of hazy but warm memories of loving the book as a child of nine or ten. Recommended to kids wanting to read something a little different from today's YA fantasies and boarding school dramas.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.5, 20.7, 20.10)
+15 Prizeworthy (Newberry, Lewis Carroll, Nene)
+5 Oldies
Task total: 65
Grand total: 450
I would like to move a book. In post #305 I claimed Chalice for 10.5. I would like to move it to 20.5.20.5 Singled Out
Chalice by Robin McKinley
+20 task (Female main character lives alone and runs a small business while also holding an important government position)
+ 5 Combo 10.5
Task Total: 25 less 10 points previously claimed
Season Total: 1165
10.1 Favorite ListsYsabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
I'm not sure how I came to own this book. I don't remember knowing anything about it, like, ever. But there it was on my fantasy shelf when I needed something to bring on a plane in September.
I liked the sense of place here -- the French countryside was described in glorious detail. The father of the hero is a famous photographer and there are several points where entire photograph plans are described (in a way that's engaging rather than dull, even to someone who knows little about photography).
I liked the history too. When traveling in Europe, I've always felt a sort of awe at the centuries of Western-Civ history that soaks through the land. This book takes that awe and turns it into fantastical reality as the hero and those around him become enmeshed in a centuries-long love triangle/epic battle that recurs on certain Celtic holidays.
Unfortunately, the characters never seemed to fit their ages. The hero and his geeky sidekick female friend are allegedly fifteen, but usually seem thirty. The assistants to the photographer are allegedly adults but often seem more like children. The parents are cooler than parents usually are in a story about a fifteen-year-old, which is fine, I guess, but felt maybe a little forced--like maybe the author really wants to be the cool dad or uncle?
I've heard good things about this author, so I'd definitely read another book by him even though this one was only okay.
+10 Task (#593 on the Best Time Travel Fiction list - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2..., which Heather used in Post 192)
+ 5 Prizeworthy (World Fantasy Award)
+10 Review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 475
15.4 AbBY Chronological The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
Skip 1949-1953
1954-1958
+20 task born 1957
Season total: 270
20.3 To Conquer HellWar's Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich
+20 task
+10 Combo 10.9, 10.10
+5 Oldies (published 1985)
+10 Prizeworthy
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 1210
Post 489 Ed wrote: "10.9- 9, 10, 11 (Norma's Task via Rebekah)[book:The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphere..."
Sorry, Ed, this doesn't work for 20.10 as the U doesn't appear until the subtitle.
Post 517 Joanna wrote: "20.4 BirdsongThe Alice Network by Kate Quinn
This is a perfect choice for my bookclub -- strong female characters, interesting history, pat and complete resoluti..."
It looks as if at least one of the main characters is single. Does this also qualify for 20.5 Singled Out?
Post 521 Marie wrote: "20.5 Singled OutThe Story of Helen Keller by Lorena A. Hickok
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.7 - 159)
+5 Oldies (1958)
Task total = 30
Points total = 105"
I'm sorry, this doesn't work for 20.7, which must be for a novel.
Singled OutThe Shadow Throne by Django Wexler
+20 task (two of the three main characters are single women)
+10 Combo 10.2, 10.5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
+5 Jumbo (512 pages)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 1245
20.8 AutumnMoonraker by Ian Fleming
The secondary female character actually did not sleep with Bond and was a respected policewoman in her own right, although they still danced around each other and she still met cultural norms of the time. I was shocked! I always got the impression that they ALL slept with him. Not that women were depicted well, the spinster stereotype was highlighted among the secretaries at MI-6, for example, but it felt more like a description of "the way things are" than any intimation that they should be that way.
We were immersed in Britishness in this one, with a seemingly inconsequential but in depth introduction. We saw Bond do office work! We saw his emotions and perceptions swing wildly! And yet everything felt crisply written and fully in character with the other two books. On more familiar territory the dastardly villain had a fiendish plot that included the addition of getting Bond out of the way, and it was a good plot too. Fleming even acknowledged the slim circumstances that the success of this story hung on.
I am still enjoying these way more than I expected.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies (1955)
+10 combo (10.2, 10.5)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 1455
Task 15.1 AbBY Chronological Moving backwards in time
1960-1964
Wherever You Go, There They Are: Stories about My Family You Might Relate to (2017) by Annabelle Gurwitch
Author was Born: November 4, 1961
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 325 + 15 = 340
20.6 The Stone CarversA Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
With all of my reading of WWI, I had yet to get the Irish perspective. There is a short bibliography at the back of this edition, and I see there are some nonfiction entries. But I'm primarily a fiction reader.
I think as a WWI novel, this doesn't quite make it into the top ranks. Barry seems unable to let us get close to Willie Dunne when he is in the war. I always felt set apart, that I was looking on from a distance, that there was a chasm between the reader and the soldier. In my genealogy research, sometimes there wasn't an actual document for finding parents. Often, it was necessary to use what is called a preponderance of evidence. Most of this novel is set in Belgium, at war. Despite the chasm, there is a preponderance of evidence about what it was like being at the front.
Where this book shines is in Dublin. Other readers may be more familiar with Irish history, especially the fight of the Irish to finally have their own country. In some earlier reading, I knew that many Irish refused to help England fight in WWI. Because of this background knowledge, I was surprised that Willie Dunne and many others were willing to don uniforms for "God and King". From my perspective, Sebastian Barry does a masterful job of showing us the division in the country at this time.
With family in Dublin and a war in Belgium, Willie Dunne was caught in the middle. Caught, not because he thought he was wrong to have put on the uniform, but actually because he put on the uniform, he could see both sides. Despite my quibble with the war setting, which is most of the book, this novel crosses the 4-/5-star line.
For several years I have had 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion marked as "wishlist". Barry has given me a taste of this period. His may actually be the better of it, but I'm willing to find out.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.5 default)
+ 5 Prize Worthy
Task total = 40
Season total = 620
10.1 Favorite ListsVox by Christina Dalcher
This book proves it isn't so easy to be Margaret Atwood. The idea here is interesting: what if we literally silence women by using a wristband that counts the number of words a woman speaks and gives her electric shocks if she exceeds the limit? And what if we make that limit just 100 words a day?
Unfortunately, an interesting idea isn't enough to carry a book. The author couldn't decide whether she wanted to get into the history of how this came to be or not. She couldn't decide how much she wanted to flesh out the technology. She couldn't even really decide what she wanted to say about this dystopia other than that it's important who you vote for and that you speak up. Because I'm so depressed about the state of the country right now, I was still gripped by this message even in this mess of a book.
But really, don't read this one. Just remember to vote.
+10 Task (#39 on Best Books 2018: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1..., posted in 461 by Anika)
+10 Review
+5 from Post 535 (adding +5 combo to Post 517 because one of the main characters in The Alice Network is single)
Task total: 20 + 5
Grand total: 500
10.3 Real PlaceManhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 9, 10, 11
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 725
20.6 The Stone CarversWashington Black by Esi Edugyan
+20 Task: 2018 Booker List
+10 Combo: 10.5 Pet Day Washington Black serpent / 10.9 9, 10, 11
+ 5 Prizeworthy
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 760
20.10 - Fall EquinoxDangerous Habits by Susan Hunter
+20 task
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.9)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 535
20.5 Singled OutThe Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
Main characters is a widow woman and her two single daughters
Review
I guess I must have really dived into this book, as I am as frustrated with some of the characters as I am with my own children. I had read only one of A. Trollope’s books before, The Warden, and don’t remember being very happy with it. But for the sake of the challenge, I thought I’d try this one. I love listening to classic British novels on audiobook with the narrator speaking in an authentic British accent and was well pleased in that respect. The different characters voices were very distinct from one another and you had no confusion in who was speaking.
On the other hand, why are those Dale girls so obstinate! When one of them finally came around and made a proper choice, (although she nearly blew it), I had hopes for the other, but she still is throwing her heart and life away at the end of the book. I just wanted to shake her! So stubborn! Then the book ended quite abruptly I thought. I wanted everything to end in a nicely wrapped package as I have learned to expect from British novels of that period. I do realize this is the penultimate book in a series, so I supposed I’ll have to read the others, to see if things do eventually work out but am afraid that I might be disappointed and would have to spend a day or two grieving about it.
I loved the whole set up, the places and the cast of characters were richly drawn and I felt as much a part of their circle as I did in Middlemarch. I would like to read more, but dread if it turns out I’ll have my heart broken.
On another note. I was amused by the names of two of the leading ladies in the novel, Lily Dale and Bell Dale. I realize they were short for Lillian and Isabella but the combination of their nicknames with their surnames was too precious. In fact there is actually a village in New York named Lily Dale that is known as “the Town that speaks to the dead” as it was founded by spiritualists and is full of mediums. So it gave me a chuckle.
Ultimately I suppose I enjoined it much. I’m not good at talking about structure and plot and gerunds and grammar and all, I only know whether or not I liked it and I would say overall I liked it a lot.
*the audio book I listen to was narrated by Timothy West and I highly recommend his readings
+20 - Task
+30 - Combo (10.2,10.3 in Kent, England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allingt... , 10.5-MPE is Penguin, 10.9,20.8,20.10)
+5 - Jumbo (695 pgs)
+15 - Oldies (1864)
+10 - Review
Task total - 80
Season Total - 155
20.10 Fall Equinox (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt
I read Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition last month and thought it exceptionally strong, so I was interested in reading his first novel, The House Behind the Cedars. While not as sophisticated as that later novel, this was still an interesting read. I'd recommend Marrow first, though.
This is mostly the story of light-skinned Rena who follows her brother John in passing as white in the Carolinas after the Civil War. She and a young white man fall in love and become engaged, but a series of coincidences result in the truth being revealed to her suitor. The engagement is called off, and tragedy ensues.
This was just so very Victorian, from its observations of transitioning social and economic structures to its treatment of the romance. Part of its novelty was that it was about racism, passing, and complicated dynamics within and between communities of black and white people--things I don't usually associate with or read about in Victorian novels.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.5 MPE Penguin Classics)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1900)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 470
10.9- 9, 10, 11Duplicate Death by Georgette Heyer
Task: 10
Combo: 10 (10.2, 20.8)
Oldies: 5- first published in 1951
Post total: 25
20.5- Singled OutNora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Nora Webster is a recent widow
Task total: 20
Combo: 5 (10.5- published by Penguin)
Post total: 25
15.5 AbBY ChronologicalSKIPPED 1910-1914
Date range: 1915-1919
Author born in 1918
Camilla by Madeleine L'Engle
Task total: 30
15.7 AbBY chronologic1941-1945
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy by Mike Love b. 1941
Task +30
Season Total: 480
10.2 Next?Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
For all my avowed dislike of mysteries, I'm realizing I read (and love) more of them than I'd originally realized. I LOVE "Galbraith"'s Strike series. I love the main characters (Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott), how real they are: their foibles and insecurities, their imperfections and humanity make them utterly believable. I think the main reason I'm not a fan of mysteries is they are so entirely plot-driven, that the characters become cogs in a machine built to reveal the complex set of circumstances devised by the author. Not so in this series. I know this is probably sacrilege to say, but I think I might enjoy this series as much as (if not a little bit more than) her Harry Potter series. (Cue the public shaming.) Lethal White just dropped in September and I'm already dying to get my hands on the next one!
+10 Task (#4 in the Strike series)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
Task total: 25
Season total: 1965
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
All the Single Ladies (other topics)Infidel (other topics)
Dragonfly in Amber (other topics)
The Big Sleep (other topics)
The Big Sleep (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Rebecca Traister (other topics)Ayaan Hirsi Ali (other topics)
Diana Gabaldon (other topics)
Raymond Chandler (other topics)
Samuel Richardson (other topics)
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Paddington: Here and Now by Michael Bond b. 1926
Lexile 850
Task +20
Season Total: 390