Reading with Style discussion
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FA 18 Completed Tasks
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 773 Bea wrote: "10.2 Next?The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
+10 Task (#5 in series)
+5 Oldie (1951)
+5 Prize-Worthy [Grand Prix de Littérature Policière f..."
Elizabeth, the edition I linked to and read was a Simon & Schuster publication, not Penguin.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 781 Bea wrote: "10.2 Next?Ha'penny by Jo Walton
+10 Task (#2 in series)
+10 Prize-Worthy [Gaylactic Spectrum Award Nominee for Best Novel (2008), Prometheus Aw..."
Oops, missed that nominee.
Bea wrote: "Elizabeth, the edition I linked to and read was a Simon & Schuster publication, not Penguin."It doesn't matter which edition you actually read, the task is:
Read a book that has at least one edition published by a publishing house that has the name of an animal in its name
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Bea wrote: "Elizabeth, the edition I linked to and read was a Simon & Schuster publication, not Penguin."It doesn't matter which edition you actually read, the task is:
Read a book that has at ..."
Ah! Then thanks for the extra points.
10.1 Favorite Lists cozy mystery series: first of the series #49 on the list
Books Can Be DeceivingJenn McKinlay
Task +10
Combo +10 20.5 , 10.2, 10.5, 10.9
Total: 20
Grand Total: 135
Task 10.7 NextRoyal Blood by Rhys Bowen
+10 task
+5 prizeworthy
+5 combo (w/20.1)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 815
Task 20.1 War's EndA Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
+20 task
+5 prizeworthy
+5 combo (w/10.2)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 845
Task 20.1 War's EndRoyal Flush by Rhys Bowen
+20 task
+5 combo (w/10.2)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 870
20.9 Arkansas (Kate's Task)The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
#102 on list
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.5 - above ed by Bantam)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,260
20.4 BirdsongThe Girl Without Skin (Grønland - Greenland #1) by Mads Peder Nordbo
approx 70% set in 2014 & 30% in 1974
Review
I've watched pretty much all the Nordic crime shows on Netflix which is one reason I'm interested in this book. The title itself, The Girl Without Skin, is intriguing despite the promised gruesomeness. But I'm still not quite sure how this title work... it's definitely not a literal meaning.
The opening chapter captured my interest easily despite breaking heart. Matthew Cave lost all meaning to his life in one horrific accident. He fled and found himself in Nuuk (Greenland). When a mummified corpse was found, he expected it to be a worldwide breaking news but instead it set off a series of murders that are eerily similar to the one in 1970s.
About 70% of the book is told from Matthew's perspective in the present time as he followed up clues to crack this mystery. The rest of the book is journal entries by a police officer in the 70s who investigated those murders but then disappeared, leaving this notebook behind. The root of the mystery though is not the murders themselves but something else that is dark and has never yet seen the light.
At roughly halfway through the book Matthew appeared to have gained a sidekick, Tupaarnaq (um, yes, I Googled on how to pronounce that name!) . Though really, I reckon he's the sidekick in this partnership; Tupaarnaq is one tough chick -hiding a world of hurt. I don't know if anyone else sees this but she reminds me of Amanda Pharrell from Crimson Lake series (except for Amanda's unique & quirky sense of humour). I'd be more interested to hear her perspective.
I very much enjoyed the setting, atmosphere, & cultural differences I found in The Girl Without Skin but overall, I didn't particularly found the mystery engaging. I wasn't surprised by any twists and found myself disappointed by how easily the mysteries of Tupaarnaq's past & Matthew's father's disappearance were dismissed. I'd be interested in the sequel though as I'd like to see the development of this partnership.
Thanks to Text Publishing for copy of book in exchange of honest review
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.2)
+10 Review
+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish
Post Total: 335
Season Total: 1,595
Tien wrote: "+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish"
Congratulations! Well done!
15.9 AbBY(skipping 1935-39)
Date Range 1930-34
City of God by E.L. Doctorow
+45 Task (born 1931)
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 1405
15.10 AbBYDate Range 1925-29
Bilgewater by Jane Gardam
+60 Task (born 1928)
+100 AbBY finish
+200 Mega finish
Post Total: 360
Season Total: 1765
Rosemary wrote: "+100 AbBY finish
+200 Mega finish"
Congratulations! Well done!
From Post 97Ann wrote: "20.1 War’s End
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The excellent audiobook bumped this up to 3 stars. Had it not been for the lively and theatrical narration, I would h..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 130Coralie wrote: "10.4 Bookshelves
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
+10 Task (Next Best Book Club)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 175"
+10 Combo 10.8, 20.5
From Post 267Joanna wrote: "I've been gone for several seasons, but I'm excited to be back...
20.1 War's End
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
820 Lexile
Review:
On the recommend..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 399Karen Michele wrote: "20.1 War's End
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
+20 Task
+20 Combo 10.2 Next? / 10.5 Pet Day (Penguin) / 20.4 Birdsong / 20.5 Singled Out
+15 Prizeworthy (3)
Task..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 465Karen Michele wrote: "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
Seas..."
+5 Combo 20.5
From Post 516Deedee wrote: "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 char..."
+10 Combo 10.3, 20.8
From Post 527Joanna wrote: "20.5 Singled Out
Island 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..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 710Rosemary wrote: "10.3 Real Place
Stamboul Train by Graham Greene
The Orient Express heads west towards Istanbul with a motley collection of passengers, some starting from Paris, others..."
+15 Combo 20.3, 20.5, 20.7
From Post 712Rebekah wrote: " 20.10 Fall Equinox
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
Review
I listened to this on Audiobook, as I had to do a lot of driving. It is long but was..."
We carry this at 1024 pages, so +25 Jumbo instead of 20.
From Post 720Karin wrote: "20.10 Autumn
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
(I had no idea that Rebekah was reading this!)
Review
4.5 stars rounded up
Well, now, my main co..."
We carry this at 1024 pages, so +25 Jumbo instead of 20.
From Post 752June wrote: "10.5- Pet Day
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Published by Bantam Books
Task : 10
Combo:5 (10.2)
Jumbo: 848 pages - 15
Post total: 30"
+10 Prize
From Post 777Lagullande wrote: "10.5 Pet Day
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
+10 Task (Penguin)
+15 Oldies (pub 1839)
+15 Jumbo (817pp)
+5 Prizeworthy (Audie Award for Classic 2012)
Points t..."
+5 Combo 20.8
From Post 779Bea wrote: "10.2 Next?
The Chatelet Apprentice by Jean-François Parot
+10 Task (#1 in series)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 110"
+5 Combo 10.9
From Post 780Bea wrote: "10.2 Next?
A Morning for Flamingos by James Lee Burke
+10 Task (#4 in series)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 120"
+5 Combo 10.9
+5 Oldies
From Post 782Bea wrote: "10.2 Next?
Dead Slow Ahead by Stella Whitelaw
+10 Task (#2 in series)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 150"
+5 Combo 20.7
From Post 797Coralie wrote: "20.5 Singled Out
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
+20 task
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.9)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 2110"
+5 Prize
20.5 Singled OutThe Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
+20 Task: 2 of the 4 women are single
+15 Combo: 10.5 Pet Day (Waking Lion Press) / 10.9 9, 10, 11 / 20.1 War's End
+10 Oldies (1922)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 1240
10.1 Favourite ListsGirl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb
found on the Best Humorous Books list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
claimed by Ann in this post: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Low lexile
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 1785
Kate S wrote: "From Post 712Rebekah wrote: " 20.10 Fall Equinox
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
Review
I listened to this on Audiobook, as I had to do a lot..."
Thanks!
Post 804 Karen Michele wrote: "15.7 AbBY Chronological1961-1965 Michel Bussi
Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi
+30 Task (author born 1965 )
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1140"
Yay! Reunion is one of the countries we didn't have for our Countries of the World Project.
Post 811 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.1 Favorite Lists cozy mystery series: first of the series #49 on the list
Books Can Be DeceivingJenn McKinlay
Task +10
Combo +10 20.5 , 10.2
Total: 20
Grand Tot..."
This has an audio editon by Penguin Audio - Books Can Be Deceiving, so 5 combo points for 10.5, and also deceiving is 9 letters, so 5 combo for 10.9 too!
Post 840 Rosemary wrote: "10.1 Favourite ListsGirl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb
found on the Best Humorous Books list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3......"
This isn't shown as YA at BPL so the Lexile rule is ignored and styles available. I see a combo for 10.2. If you know of something else, let us know.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 840 Rosemary wrote: "10.1 Favourite ListsGirl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb
This isn't shown as YA at BPL so the Lexile rule is ignored and styles available. I see a combo for 10.2. If you know of something else, let us know."
Oh, right! It used to be. Sometimes it's good to keep books for a few years before reading!
I don't think there are any other combos. Thanks for picking that up.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 804 Karen Michele wrote: "15.7 AbBY Chronological1961-1965 Michel Bussi
Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi
+30 Task (author born 1965 )
Task Total: 30
Season To..."
That's great! I was introduced to Bussi in another group and I love his mysteries.
Also, congrats to all of the finishers! The Readerboard is looking good:) I think I'll make it --- getting close;)
15.9 AbBY Chronological1971-1975 Naomi Alderman
The Power by Naomi Alderman
+45 Task (author born 1974 )
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 1285
15.10 AbBY Chronological
1905-09
An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (born 1907)
Lexile 810
Task total: 60
AbBY Finish: 100
Post total: 160
Season total: 565
1905-09
An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (born 1907)
Lexile 810
Task total: 60
AbBY Finish: 100
Post total: 160
Season total: 565
15.10 AbBY Chronological1975-1980 Alejandro Zambra
Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra
+60 Task (author born 1975 )
+100 AbBY Chronological Finish
+200 Megafinish
Post Total: 360
Season Total: 1645
10.5 Pet DayA Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
This is one that, had I not been reading for a group, I might have set aside. I persevered and was rewarded. Still, it will not be among my favorites by Taylor. I was thinking it lacked even the bit of humor glimpsed in her previous novels. And then I looked at my highlights and found these:
Harriet’s virginity they marvelled over a great deal. It seemed a privilege to have it under the same roof. They were always kindly enquiring after it, as if it were a sick relative. It must not be bestowed lightly, they advised. It must not be bestowed at all, Miss Brimpton said. It was a possession, not a state; was positive, not negative.It's that Harriet does have rather snivelling ways that drove me to distraction. Weak, weak, weak, I thought, and I wanted her to have more starch. Harriet is just 18 when the novel opens and is afraid of her own shadow. There is growth over the years, but not enough for me. I have also come to the conclusion that it is not within Taylor to create a sympathetic male character. OK, maybe there was one in her A View of the Harbour. There is certainly not one here.
She had stopped crying, was staring down at her lap, turning her handkerchief from corner to corner. ‘She does have rather snivelling ways,’ he thought aloofly...
As I embarked on this journey of reading Elizabeth Taylor, I stumbled across a remark to the effect that all of her novels are the same. While that is most certainly not literally true, there is a theme of infidelity running through them. One of the things that makes the novels so different is that the characters approach the very idea of infidelity so differently.
Again, the first part of this novel was nearly a slog, so much that I wondered if I would see it through. And then in the second part I found it compelling. (Was it Taylor's dealing with the age-old question of infidelity?) In any case this is a good 3-stars, but certainly not four.
+10 Task (A Game of Hide and Seek)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1961)
Task Total = 25
Season Total = 1255
And that will do it for me for Fall!
Karen Michele wrote: "+100 AbBY Chronological Finish
+200 Megafinish."
Congratulations! Well done!
20.10 Fall EquinoxThe Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
There were some very interesting ideas covered in this--ideas about politics, about gender roles, equality, feminism, love, family, betrayal, and the list doesn't end there. Sadly, they were portrayed by highly unsympathetic (bordering on unlikable) characters. The two characters about whom I was most curious were the two who were given very little "airtime." This is the second book I've read by Meg Wolitzer--and the second time I've been underwhelmed by a book which so many people rave about.
I think that as I get older, I tend to judge a book on not only the writing and the treatment of ideas, but on the population of the book and whether or not I want to be spending 9-15 hours with them (the typical time it takes to read or listen to a book of this size). In this case, the two characters who take up the bulk of the book would not fit that bill. They're supposed to be inspirational, relatable, strong women...I found them bordering on self-important, disloyal, and petty. Perhaps if I had read this one rather than listened to it I might have a different perception (I find that when I read the written word, I'm more inclined to feel sympathy and an affinity with the characters while, oddly, I feel more judgemental of them when I listen to their stories).
+20 Task (the female pErsUAsIOn)
+10 Review
+10 Combo--10.5: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... ; 10.9: "persuasion=10 letters
Task total: 40
Season total: 2880
This is probably my last post for the season20.10 Fall Equinox
The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys
Review
Samuel Pepys was a leading citizen of his time in the service of King Charles II as a civil servant of much responsibility as the Clerk of the Acts of the Navy Board, a prestigious position he secured after he accompanied his patron, the Earl of Sandwich on the ship that fetched King Charles II from exile to restore him to the British throne. Samuel kept a diary of his life from 1660 – 1669, living and writing frankly about historical events and people of the time. He wrote of the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague of London, the Great Fire of London, about the conversion of the Duke of York (later King James II) to Roman Catholicism, the long term affair of King Charles II with Lady Castlemaine and the king’s marriage to Princess Catherine, of Portugal.
He has acquaintance of many illustrious people of the age besides members of the Royal Family including the Quaker leader William Penn, (whom he called a knave), and many of the aristocratic Lords of Parliament. Although he seemed to truly love his wife, whom he married just before her 15th birthday, he was an insatiable philanderer. He speaks of his wife often and how they are getting along. Yet several times a month, his entries include encounters with several different women, from all classes, married and unmarried. For sex, kisses, and feels, he would give favors even with the wife of a Navy man to give the husband career advantages. Though quite the scoundrel, yet quite jealous when he thought his wife attracted to her dance instructor. However, he did seem devoted to her, grieving fully at her death when she was 29. Although he outlived her by 34 years and often living with another woman, he never remarried and commissioned a bust of her at his death to be placed in his church so he could view it from his pew every Sunday.
As disapproving as I was of his sexual proclivities, I couldn’t help liking the rogue for he did do much to improve the Navy, the lot of the sailors and immune to bribes and very Patriotic. He was also very intelligent, studying mathematics and science so he could further improve the department of the navy.
Like most of us he was part saint and part sinner and the world is very grateful to him for giving us a record of a most tumultuous time in British history.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo (10.3 -https://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys , 10.5)
+10 pts - Review
+20 pts - Oldies (1669)
+25 pts - Jumbo (1096 pages)
Task Total - 85 pts
Season Total - 590 pts
20.5 Singled OutThe Chalk Girl by Carol O'Connell
A strange solitary child and a plague of rats in Central Park lead police to a dead man who has been tied up and left to die in a tree, recalling the similar murder of a small boy that had happened years before. Detective Kathy Mallory and her partner are faced with untangling a web of deception that links the filthy rich to senior NYPD officers.
This was well written and well paced. I liked the child characters. I'd never heard of Williams Syndrome, and that was fascinating to read about. However, I was unconvinced by the ending and appalled by the portrayal of the police, who all seemed to be either corrupt or psychopathic. It certainly didn't make me want to read another book about Kathy Mallory. But perhaps book 10 in the series was not a good place to start.
+20 Task (Kathy Mallory is single)
+ 5 Combo (10.2)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 1825
That's all for me for this season. Thanks for another great season! Looking forward to the next!
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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)
More...
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)
More...
1966-1970 Jodi Picoult
A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
+45 Task (author born 1966 )
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 1185