Reading with Style discussion
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FA 18 Completed Tasks
Task 20.06 The Stone CarversMan Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2018)
Warlight (2018) by Michael Ondaatje (Hardcover, 285 pages)
Review: This Booker Prize Longlisted novel is another novel told in a non-linear fashion. The novel begins with our narrator describing his life at age 14, in the year 1947, in London, England. At that time, he and his slightly older sister are left in the care of two responsible male guardians, while his parents move to a new job in Asia. (But that’s not what the novel is about.) The non-linear style is used as the narrator, now an older adult, tries to reverse-engineer what was really going on when he was too young to understand the meaning of what he was seeing. This involves a certain amount of skipping around in time. I can see why this one was nominated for the Booker Prize – it is very clever. I won’t say what the novel is really about as that isn’t revealed until the last third of the novel and would constitute major spoilers. Recommended for those who like challenging literary novels.
And, after having read, one right after another, two novels told first person in non-linear fashion, I’m going to try and pick as my next novel a novel told in sequential order. 😊
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.7 Born in Sri Lanka)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 65 + 35 = 100
10.9 9, 10, 11Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World by Robert D. Kaplan
I didn’t pay enough attention to the second half of the subtitle “America’s Role in the World”. For two thirds of the book, I could not figure out where Kaplan was going. He did not convince me of his premise—that because the US has a one-of-a-kind geography and fulfilled its Manifest Destiny of stretching from “sea to sea”, it has unique responsibilities in the world.
I do agree with him on a number of details. The US has exploited its abundant natural resources; after WWI and WWII, it was in a good position because the wars were not fought on US soil; that trying to export current US style democracy and civil rights willy-nilly everywhere is not a good strategy.
I recommend this book to readers who would like to challenge their view of the US and its role in the world.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total 20
Season total: 130
10.9 - 9,10,11Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence
This book is so great! Highly recommend for book lovers (all of us here obviously) and particularly those who like to read books about books! Quick and easy to read, can be read in spurts and delightful at every turn.
Dear Fahrenheit 451 is a book of letters written by the author to books that have touched her life for better or for worse. Better = Jeffrey Eugenides (prompting a lifelong obsession); worse = books like pictorial anatomy of the inside of a cat, a dated book of scenes for teen actors and a "converting the homos" book.
Spence is irreverent, quirky, and charming. She spins personal anecdotes about her past, present and work as a public librarian. Her style allows you an inside look to her a life and personality and allows the reader to feel that they really know (and would be best friends with ) the author. The second section includes book lists and recommendations for particular scenarios such as Blind Dates and Judging a Book by its Cover. Due to this book, I added a bunch of books to my to read list including many that I wouldn't have thought would appeal to me. I suppose that 's the power of word of mouth and a great librarian!
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 pts
Grand Total: 175 pts
15.4 AbBy in order1921-1925
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
Born 1921
Task total: 20
Grand total: 365
10.8 Cli FiGold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
No. Why did I read this book so soon after something even worse? Bad idea, self.
Gold Fame Citrus is not a bad book. In fact, it is quiet effective at creating it’s ground-down, heatstroke world. Too effective. I live in the desert, and this scenario is my worst nightmare (and I’m legitimately afraid I will live to see some version of it).
This was AWFUL to get through, and not just because the bleak setting. The writing is designed to wear you out, to drag you along, to made your brain get a little soft and hazy in all of the lists. SO. MANY. LISTS. And once you’re lulled by the lists, the writing gets extra-strange aynd you feel like you are trapped in a fever dream of the Great Dune Sea.
It reminded me a little of the Maddaddam books, because they also made me feel like I was in a lucid dream. However, Atwood is far more skilled and she does not just craft effective words, she creates intriguing characters. Her writing has heart. This did not.
For fans of bleak dystopian fiction - give this a try. There are many rave reviews, and it will provoke a reaction.
+10 task
+10 combo (20.10, 10.5 Gold Fame Citrus Penguin)
+10 review
Task total = 30
Season total = 610
15.5 AbBYReverse chronological order
1956-1960
The Haunted by Bentley Little 1960
Task total = 30
Season total = 640
20.2 To Conquer HellTo Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 by Edward G. Lengel
I tend not to read books where I know the ending. I was well aware this was the final battle of the war, and that the Allies were victorious. As my grandfather was killed on the first day of this battle, I thought it fit that I should read this now as part of my commemoration of the centenary of the Armistice.
Fought over a period of forty-seven days, from September 26 to November 11, 1918, the Meuse-Argonne sucked in 1.2 million American soldiers, leaving 26,277 of them dead and 95,786 wounded. Almost all of these casualties came in a period of about three weeks of heavy fighting, and they amounted to about half of the total American casualties for the war.It may have been "the most critical military contribution" but we should recognize that by the time of the Meusse-Argonne, Germany was mostly a defeated army. Still, Germany had held this territory since 1914 despite the Allies efforts to dislodge the German army. It was important that Germany finally be defeated here, their last true stronghold.
...
No single battle in American military history, before or since, even approaches the Meuse-Argonne in size and cost, and it was without question the country’s most critical military contribution to the Allied cause in the First World War.
I was disgusted at the egotism of the American generals and their failure even to try to learn from both the British and the French. Those two nations did not understand modern warfare at the beginning of the war and it took them quite some time to finally understand that sending men "over the top" into the face of machine guns and artillery would simply yield a horrendous number of dead soldiers. (The British suffered nearly 20,000 fatalities on a single day - July 1, 1916 - in the Battle of the Somme.) I was frustrated that General "Black Jack" Pershing thought himself so much better than they that he couldn't have even ventured the observation that men with rifles and bayonets and a will to win were simply not enough.
As a battlefield general, Pershing had been mediocre. His management of the Meuse-Argonne offensive had been uncreative, and his understanding of tactics remained rooted in the nineteenth century. His obsession with the cult of the offensive had shattered several American divisions and sacrificed thousands of men for victories that a little creativity and forethought might have won more cheaply.Some of this is very dry, telling of this division attacking a hill, or that division attacking a town. But interspersed were paragraphs of stories of individuals. Some of the individuals were revisited in subsequent chapters. There were quotes from war diaries - some by the generals with the big egos, others by the rank and file whose observations were more valuable. There was a concluding chapter that told of how the soldiers faired in homecoming.
I have a hard time rating this. It was a personal read for me, even though the action took place after my personal connection ceased to exist. I learned a lot. I'm giving it 4 stars, but only just, and it wouldn't surprise me if others didn't think of it so highly.
+20 Task
+ 5 Prize Worthy
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo (512 pgs)
Task Total = 40
Season total = 150
10.5 Pet DayThe Jungle by Upton Sinclair
above edition published by Penguin Books
Review
What a tough book to read! Mostly because just how hard life turned out to be for these immigrants. It was so very hard that I could only stomach about 1 chapter a day until slightly past the halfway mark where things turn, not for the better for the protagonist but more politic in direction. I guess if the author wanted to make a point, this is it. And you know what, socialism is great in theory (who does not like the dream of an utopian world where all is equal and none left in need) but I do not believe it will work in the real world. Human nature, unfortunately, pose an unbreakable barrier.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub. 1906)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 325
15.5 AbBYDate Range 1930-1934, read chronologically
The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose by Alice Munro
+20 Task (author born 1931)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 395
20.3 Birds without WingsLast Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin
I enjoyed this book, although I did set it aside and pick it up a couple times while reading. The writing style was clear and enjoyable. The historical basis of the overarching plot was the highly interesting foundation. The characters were perhaps more decorative and illustrative to show the plot, but still interesting to me and well told in their moments and glimpses and they seemed rooted in their cultures. The way that World War II intersected with Turkey never occurred to me before. The book meandered, sometimes with a focus here and sometimes there, in a way that told an overall story but not really the one I expected from the description. I recommend it.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.3)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 400
10.3 Real PlaceJerusalem by Selma Lagerlöf
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.5 Dead Dodo, 10.9 Jerusalem = 9 ltrs)
+10 Oldies (pub 1901-02)
Points this post: 30
RwS total: 60
AbBY total: -
Season Total: 60
15.4 AbBY, Chronological 1950-1954Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom (1953)
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 615
20.5 Singled OutA Dangerous Place (Maisie Dobbs #11) by Jacqueline Winspear
Review
This book begins 4 years after the last book. 4 YEARS! 4 years in which Maisie Dobbs married James Compton then lost both husband and child in one days. I feel cheated! Cheated out of the happiness than I deserve to have experienced with Maisie. Whilst her short marriage was described as happy etc, this novel was imbued with a grief so deep, I really couldn’t feel any trace of happiness. Surely there could’ve been a way for that happiness to be shared with the readers… we only ever seem to have Maisie as she works her way out of grief.
In a way, the above distracted me from the novel. I wasn’t too interested in the mystery which I found actually rather confusing with all the back & forth between agents, double agents, and their loyalties. There also wasn’t a complete ending but rather an open ended ambiguous we know who’s bad & good and because of the war etc etc etc, things will have to stay as they were (ie. the truth being under wraps). I’m still considering of picking up the next book which sounds to be a little different than the usual Maisie Dobbs as she’s going undercover (espionage).
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2; 10.9 - 9 letters in DANGEROUS; 20.1 - 100% set in 1937)
+10 Review
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 370
15.1 AbBY Chronological
1860-64
Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (born 1863)
Task total: 15
Season total: 35
1860-64
Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (born 1863)
Task total: 15
Season total: 35
From Post 159Jenifer wrote: "10.2 Next
Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 85"
+5 Prizeworthy
20.9 Arkansas (Kate's task)Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor Lexile 920
Oh my, another intense children's book. Actually, I had trouble getting into this 1977 Newbery winner on a steady basis, until about 1/2 way when the tension really started to build. The setting is 1933 Mississippi USA; the main characters are the Logan family (African-American) and this book is #4 of the series. Cassie Logan, age 9 or so, is the narrator. She has three brothers: one older, Stacey (about 12), and two younger, Christopher-John and Little Man. They walk a mile or two to school every day and are sometimes joined by T.J. (African-American neighbor) and Jeremy (white). Cassie is curious and strong-willed and begins to ask Stacey, her parents (David & Mary), and grandmother (Big Ma) why things are the way they are. As the year progresses, tensions build. Choices, good and bad, are made. Stories of violence are heard, until the climax, when Cassie and her siblings witness a terrible scene that changes a character's life.
+20 Task (#113 on list)
+15 Combo 10.2, 10.5 (Puffin), 20.1 (1933)
+5 Oldie 1976
+15 Prizeworthy (5 awards)
+10 Review
Task Total: 65
Season Total: 315
20.4 BirdsongA Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Time periods - current day and events 15 years prior.
So I’m highlighting passages (so much highlighting) as references to classic horror and then we get to the blog post #1 and I fell out laughing. And stopped highlighting. Thanks for doing all the work for me!
Although not quite all the work. I’m not sure right now if the real people were all just Easter-eggs, or... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNN deliberate clues dropped by eeeeeevilllllll.
Because this is a horror novel, I’m going to go with dark purpose. Also, because I just read Mapping the Interior. That for sure is coloring my interpretation.
I loved this book, it was un-put-downable. It had moments that were scary, especially because all of my scary buttons are deeply rooted in childhood. Example, the creepy sibling standing over a bed: my brother used to psychologically torture me like that, until the night I snapped and was possessed by terror and RAGE, and said I would kill him if he ever did it again. And I must have been scary because he never did. So alllllll that stuff with rigging a bedroom to make sure you were “safe”... BTDT and for some reason I love being re-scared in the same way. Working through some stuff, am I?
This book hit scarily close to home in so many ways (my first house of my own was a creep-tastic shack in MA, complete with terrorbasement), but it was fun because it was a parody, but also still creepy because of what went down. I.... I maybe identify a bit too much with that last final girl.
+20 task
+10 awards
+10 review
+5 combo 20.5 (Adult Merry is single).
Task total = 35
Season total = 675
10.1 Favorite ListsThe Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Connie in post 621 of Summer tasks used list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... which The Satanic Verses is also on as 19
This book was so very strange and elaborate and had layers of stories in it. In content it didn't seem to be capable of inspiring furor and death threats but then I realized who one of the less admirable characters was supposed to be, which I had not recognized immediately as some different variations of the common Westernized names were used. Not that any of the characters were truly admirable. They were all complex and flawed. The magical realism aspects were important to the story, although the meaning could have perhaps been conveyed without them. Overall it was an okay read that I was glad to be done with. I liked Midnight's Children better.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 age (1988)
+5 length (561 pgs)
+5 prize (Whitbread)
+10 combo (10.5 Penguin, 10.7 India on list for Asia)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Task total: 45
Grand total: 445
15.6 AbBYDate Range 1935-1939, read chronologically
The Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock
+20 Task (author born 1939)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 440
10.1 Favorite ListsBehemoth (Leviathan, #2) by Scott Westerfeld
YA - 810L
Imaginative Books (#192) -posted last season here
Review
I only vaguely remember book 1, Leviathan, though I remember liking it quite well. I think the piece of alternate history with a steampunk element and gorgeous illustrations were what I really liked about the story. Plus the girl disguised as a boy is also a favourite trope of mine so this trilogy should’ve really been no the top of my tbr but as usual, too many books too little time.
It took a while to get back into the story and the characters especially since the girl-as-boy is known (by the readers) by 2 names; Dylan as she’s known to other characters and Deryn when the story is being told through her perspective. I must also confess that I know next to nothing about WWI except maybe the assassination attempt of Franz Josef & the Battle of Gallipolli so I do appreciate the author’s note at the end explaining the historical fact.
Again, this second book of Leviathan (Behemoth) was such a fun read! There’s so much possibility with alternate steampunk history. The intriguing adventures of these 2 teenagers in
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.2; 10.5 - above edition by Penguin)
+10 Review
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 415
Post 195 Ed wrote: "20.2 To Conquer Hell(For purposes of our group project...most of this book takes place in the Comoros.)
A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth by [author:Samantha We..."
In case you keep track of such things, this doesn't work for 20.8 because it was published after 1958, but it does work for 10.9 because Coelacanth is 10 letters. So your score is the same.
A big thank you for the Group Project contribution!
Post 212 Coralie wrote: "10.2 Next? Feedback by Mira Grant
+10 Task
+5 Jumbo (512 pages)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 410"
I'm sorry, Coralie. The MPE for this title is just 489 pages.
10.2- Next?Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Book Three of Throne of Glass series
Lexile score 910
Task +10
Combo +5 - 20.5 Celaena is the queen of Terrassen and single in this book
Prizeworthy +5
Jumbo +5
Post total: 25
10.2 - NextScandalous Behavior by Stuart Woods
+10 task
+10 Combo (10.5, 10.9)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 240
10.2 - NextAunt Bessie Remembers by Diana Xarissa
+10 task
+5 Combo (10.9)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 255
20.1 War's endThe Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
This is the first ‘Tommy and Tuppence’ novel that Christie wrote, and her second published novel. I’ve always enjoyed the Tommy and Tuppence books and wish she had written more.
In this story both Tommy and Tuppence have been demobbed from the military after WW1. They are amongst the many who are having difficulty finding work (and are not of independent means). Tuppence is a woman of action and she convinces Tommy that they should advertise themselves as ‘young adventurers’ to find a paying adventure. As it happens they land themselves in the midst of an intriguing and complicated mystery which has a political element. They individually plunge themselves into dicey situations, and with brains and luck manage to extricate themselves and work toward solving the problem. Even though I know nothing really terrible happens to the heroes in a Christie novel, I was nervous for them a few times!
It has been quite a while since I read this novel last, so I had forgotten that this is where we learn the back story of Tommy and Tuppence; and that they aren’t married yet. We are also introduced to their assistant, Albert. There is a lot of action, and ‘rushing around the countryside’ in this novel which I enjoyed. There is a great deal of charm and wit in this novel, and of course, even though I had my suspicions, I didn’t figure out who did it (until told!). 4.5*
20 task
10 review
10 oldie
10 combo 10.5 (Bantam), 20.8
_____
50
Running total: 215
10.9 9, 10, 11 (Norma's Task via Rebekah)Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 245
20.5 Singled OutKilling Grounds by Dana Stabenow
I always enjoy reading a Kate Shugak mystery from the great series set in Alaska by Dana Stabenow. I’ve never been to Alaska, so I like learning about Kate’s life on her homestead or, as in this installment, finding out more about the summer fishing season. The mysteries are always well written and this one fooled me as usual. Kate is a great character. She’s independent and is sometimes brazen, but she is always reflective and thoughtful, too. Her aunties were fun to get to know and added more details about the family traditions Kate followed. I was even more interested in Alaska after meeting a smoke jumper from Fairbanks during our Montana cabin trip over the summer. My husband and I learned a lot about subsistence fishing from him and so I had even more background for the book and the conflicts between subsistence and commercial fishing that figured into the plot.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Next?
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 280
20.5 Singled OutWarcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu
YA - 810L
Review
I’m in love!! I love this world so much! It’s glittery colourful shiny façade which hid, of course, a darker than dark underworld which they call, ‘Down Under’ lol
Emika Chen has had to learn to fend for herself. Her father died a few years ago and left her a massive debt to pay off. She’s 18 and doing the best she can to stay afloat but she is about to drown. A daring her-last-chance-at-survival glitched and suddenly she found herself transported from her seedy New York shared apartment to bigger-than-her-wildest-dream hotel room. In the end, she found that nothing appear as it seems.
I’m not a gamer myself but hubby is and whilst he’s tried to get me playing, my brain-to-fingers coordination is too poor for me to enjoy gaming. I do understand, however, the attraction of gaming especially virtual reality ones. This is what Warcross is all about… a virtual reality for which almost anyone can access. Everyone can pretend to be anyone else, to look whichever way they like and be whatever they want to be. What’s even better is the Warcross games; an adrenaline rush like no other. Even a wheelchair-bound man in life can have functioning limbs in Warcross and be an international top player.
Warcross is a thoroughly enjoyable novel; fast-paced action-packed brand new world within an old worn one complete with intriguing mystery & villain and melt-your-heart romance. Thankfully, I can reach over for book 2 right now! So, I guess I made a good decision to wait.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.5 - above edition by Penguin Books Australia; 10.7 - China as per GR)
+10 Review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 455
Task 20.5 Singled Out Read a book with a single female as the main character. The woman may be never-married, widowed, abandoned, etc, but should be the main character and obviously head of her own household.
Secondhand Spirits (A Witchcraft Mystery #1) (2009) by Juliet Blackwell (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 313 pages)
Review: This is the first book of a series of paranormal mysteries. Our heroine, Lily Ivory, is a good witch, who uses her witchy abilities for the benefit of those she chooses help. Most of the first half of this book is spent in worldbuilding – what abilities Lily have at her disposal, what abilities she does NOT have at her disposal, what other paranormal individuals are in the area. Paranormal abilities are seen as morally neutral – the abilities could be used for good purposes OR used for bad purposes, depending on the individual. (In that way, paranormal abilities are like a knife that can be used to kill or be used to perform lifesaving surgery.) The novel also introduces the de rigueur love triangle – which handsome man will Lily ultimately join with? I suspect that book #2 of the series will take the world for granted, and get into the plot quicker than this one did. Recommended for fans of paranormal cozy mysteries.
This book fits this task as our heroine, never-married Lily Ivory, lives by herself in an apartment above the Vintage Clothing Store that she owns and manages. She is definitely the head of her own household.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.2(series), #10.9(10 letters = Sec ond han d)
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 100 + 30 = 130
15.5 AbBY, Chronological 1955-1959Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion (1956)
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 645
10.7 Crazy Rich Asians...or Not!The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
I had previously read Exit West and loved it so was looking forward to hearing this author’s unique voice again. Changez, our narrator, was at the top of his class in Lahore, eventually earning himself a spot at Princeton and then at a prestigious valuation firm in New York, where he is a quickly rising star. While at Princeton, he meets the beautiful Erica, with whom he becomes entangled (though not in ways he was hoping or expecting). Amidst his personal turmoil and angst caused by the nebulous nature of his “relationship” with Erica, two planes hit the World Trade Center and his world turns upside down.
This book was fascinating, covering everything from the immigrant experience and what it means to be a citizen of the world to very personal and individual experiences of desire and loss.
I love that he said things that some people might find hard to hear, that he didn’t shy away from or make excuses for presenting ideas that some might find hard to swallow. I love that the book ends as somewhat of a cliffhanger, letting the reader decide for themselves how they think it “really” ends. This was one short, powerful book and am still reeling from it. Highly recommend!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Prizeworthy
+20 Combo (10.5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... ; 10.9 “reluctant”=9; 20.5–Erica is single; 20.6)
Task total: 50
Season total: 695
10.10 Group readsI Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Horror isn’t a genre I gravitate to, however I let the group reads here guide me to something new (to me) and interesting. I have read other vampire novels, and this is not the romanticized version. The first 2/3 of the novella is claustrophobic and filled with dread. I really enjoyed how Matheson developed the story as a whole through Neville (the MC). I also thought the basis of the vampirism plague was interesting and plausible. The last third of the novella took an unexpected turn (to say the least); and the ending is very powerful and what pushes this book into ‘classic’ territory. 4*
10 task
10 review
5 prize
5 oldie
10 combo 20.7, 10.5 (Bantam)
_____
40
Running total: 255
10.10 - group readSilently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.5 - Wyrm)
+ 5 prizeworthy (Locus for Best Novella 2012)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 165
10.2 Next!Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
This is the fourth in Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike detective stories, just released, and it’s a corker!
We start with a wedding. That’s the prologue and it stunned me in the detail that it evokes (things like the scraping of chairs as people shift around to focus on the top table when the speeches start). Then a homeless-or-mentally-ill young man turns up in Strike’s office, frightening the temp (who is nothing like Robin as a temp) and claiming to have seen a child murdered and buried when he was himself a child … which turns out to have been in exactly the part of the country where I grew up.
And from there the threads spin out to involve Ministers of the Crown. I loved all the parts about Parliament, too.
On the downside, it was longer than the plot justified. The author is a great storyteller and could probably rivet me with her shopping lists, but the plot is pretty simple. But then, a lot of the pages are spent on Cormoran and Robin’s personal lives, which is what most readers want at this stage in the series. (view spoiler) (Not a massive spoiler there.) I’d give 4.5 stars if I could, but I’ll go for 5 rather than 4.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo (656 pages)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 415
20.4 BirdsongHow to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Tom Hazard has a genetic anomaly that means he lives about 10 times as long as ordinary people. The love of his life, Rose, died of the plague back in the 16th century, but he’s not the only person of his kind, and there’s someone he’s looking for.
This was a fun and undemanding read, but it could have been so much more. The bad guy didn’t seem to have much reason for doing what he did, and the consequences for the hero could have been so much worse. I would read more by this author, but not with high expectations for anything but a cosy story.
+20 Task (approved)
+ 5 Combo (10.5 Penguin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... )
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 450
20.7 A Month in the CountryEthel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
Graphic novel, no styles
+20 Task (104 pp)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 470
10.1 Favorite ListsTwo Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Low lexile, no styles
List: Best Books Ever https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Claimed by itpdx in post 71, https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 480
10.3 Real PlaceMoonlight over Paris by Jennifer Robson
She was poring over the menu, trying to decide between the baked endive with ham or a mushroom omelette
I highlighted this. Why? Because it was at this moment that I feared this was it. This was the book. It was baked endive vs omelette, battle royale. I wasn’t quite at the halfway point...should I give up and read something more substantial, or keep going and hope I at least got some meringue?
I should have given up. I wanted something light and fluffy, which this was, but it was also dead dull. Whipped egg whites sans sucre.
It had all the trappings of something yummy - after a nearly fatal illness, a jilted good girl decides she’s going to LIVE and moves to Paris to be an artist. Wheeee! But the pacing was slow and the characters flat. This was one giant yawn of a book.
+10 task
+20 combo (10.2, 10.9, 20.1, 20.5)
+10 review
Task total = 40
Season total = 715
15.4 AbBY chronologicalDate Range 1951-1955
I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen
+20 Task (author born 1953)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 110
15.5 AbBY chronologicalDate Range 1956-1960
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
+30 Task (author born 1958)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 140
20.1 War's EndSet in 1924-1925, as noted in table of contents
Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King
I hadn't run across this series before - where an older Sherlock Holmes mentored then married a younger woman named Mary Russell - and this is the 13th in the series. It is told in direct first person by Mary, which was an interesting voice, and was very much her story, even with Holmes as a partner. The way they worked together was satisfying to read.
This particular adventure took place on a boat, in Japan, and near London and had awesome details and descriptions of the customs and "landscape", a vivid window to the past. The Japanese culture was intrinsically necessary to the plot of the book and presented in a respectful way, presuming it was correct, of course.
If this series fits other tasks in the future I might borrow more of them, and I am tempted to go to the beginning and see how on earth the two characters got together.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 award (Agatha 2015)
+10 combo (10.2, 10.5 MPE is Bantam)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 490
20.6 The Stone Carvers Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
+20 Task
+10 Combo 10.5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... 10.7 (born in Pakistan)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 465
10.2 Real PlaceThe Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle
I listened to this book while in the car... and I usually have no problem living in the book while using innate skills driving the car without a conscious thought. This was an exception. I quickly realized that none of the characters or the plot mattered to me and I could not keep my attention focussed. The plot has a pair of Americans helping a Frenchman in a plot to acquire the rights to build a large development in France. Everything just seemed too formulaic and cartoonish to me. I had never read any of Mayle's other books...but I know he is known for his books that feature the French countryside and cooking. I DID enjoy the portions of this book which detailed some fabulous meals presented to the characters. But that wasn't enough to rescue the novel for me. One star.
task = 10
combo= 10 (10.3; 10.9-"Marseille)
review=10
task total=25
Grand total= 285
From Post 196Beth wrote: "20.6 The Stone Carvers
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2011 winner
I liked the writing. I hated the "ending" and when I went to read more about it online, ju..."
+5 Combo 10.4
20.10 Fall EquinoxInstructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
Somehow I have arrived late in 2018 without having read Maggie O'Farrell. I have, and keep meaning to read, her The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, but somehow it keeps not quite getting far enough up the quarterly list to actually get read. I enjoyed this title enough that I'll try harder to get Esme Lennox in front of my eyes.
My biggest complaint was with the name of the character Aiofe. I didn't know how to pronounce it, and it slowed me down every time I saw it. In fact, the pronunciation was somewhat of an issue for Aiofe, as well. Eventually we learn that it is somewhere between Ava and Eva, with the "f" sort of a combination of the sound of a "v" and an "f". I still couldn't do it.
O'Farrell does a good job of characterization, and, despite the pronunciation problem, Aiofe was my favorite character. She was defiant, spunky. She also garnered my greatest sympathy, and I shed actual tears here.
She cannot read. This is her own private truth. Because of it, she must lead a double life: the fact of it saturates every molecule of her being, defines her to herself, always and forever, but nobody else knows. Not her friends, not her colleagues, not her family — certainly not her family. She has kept it from all of them, felt herself brimming with the secret her whole life.O'Farrell is the queen of emphasizing by expanding examples of a thought. This is but one stunning example.
The hair that rested on her shoulders, the color of honey held up to the light, the hair that spread itself over her pillow and his, the hair he'd gather up on this hand like a silken rope, the hair he'd liked to form a tent around them in the dark as she rose and fell above him. The hair he'd noticed in the first term of his PhD, in a lecture on postwar Europe: the clean, smooth, sun-catching length of it. He'd never seen hair like it, certainly never felt hair like it.For most of this, I expected it would come in at 5-stars. However, I began to weary of the conflict between the siblings. Finally, the ending was somewhat weak and easily predicted. Still, it was definitely good enough to be a strong 4-star read.
+20 Task
+ 5 combo (20.5 - Salamandra: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...)
+10 Review
Task total = 35
Season total = 185
15.6 - AbBYDate Range 1951 - 1955
A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow
+30 (author born 1952)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 300
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Reading with Style
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Read one of these books recommended by other RwS readers.
Ann: Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente
Locus Award for Best Novella (2012)
Silently and Very Fast (2011) by Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 127 pages)
Review: This novella was nominated for several science fiction / fantasy awards the year it was published. It’s written in first person, from the perspective of an AI (artificial intelligence) entity. Catherynne M. Valente writes poetry as well as prose. She’s comfortable with making the reader work to understand what is meant by what is written.
The story is divided into three parts. I found that reading the first part twice helped me in understanding the remainder of the novella. Most books are written like this: event == followed by == reaction to an event. This one is written: reaction to unknown event == followed by == references to miscellaneous events that happened a long time ago == followed by, almost reluctantly, the event itself. Once you figure out what is going on, it’s a cool story. Recommended for readers of challenging science fiction.
+10 Task
+05 Combo
+05 Prize-worthy
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 05 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 35 + 30 = 65