Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2014 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2014
20.10 Higher EducationI Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
+20 task (http://reading.berkeley.edu/srl_2014....)
+5 combo (10.4 Education has 9 letters)
+10 Not-a-novel (non-fiction)
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 250
10.4Chernobyl and Three Mile Island: The History and Legacy of The World's Most Notorious Nuclear Accidents by Charles River Editors
+10 task
+10 not a novel
task total: 20
grand total: 1615
20.6 UnderratedVideo Kill by Joanne Fluke
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.9 War Babies)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 305
10.7 Honored AuthorsAlice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Lexile 940 and 910
Review:
Christopher Plummer does a fantastic job bringing these classic stories to life. I'd quite forgotten just how much fun these stories are. I originally thought I'd listen to them with my five-year-old, but having previewed them, I don't think he'll enjoy them just yet. But once I started down the rabbit hole, I ended up listening to both Wonderland and Looking Glass over the course of a week's commuting. Plenty of amusing queens, beheadings, growing and shrinking, and wacky conversations. Highly enjoyable. I look forward to listening to this again when my son is a bit older and more able to follow the wordplay.
+10 Task (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Ca...)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (published 1865)
+10 Combo (10.4 – adventures, 20.1 – shelved as 19th century 158 times)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 695
I need to move a book.In Post 226, I posted The Haunting of Hill House for 10.7.
I'd like to move that to 20.7 Slipstream:
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.7, 20.9)
+10 Review (in post 226)
+5 Oldies
Task total: 50 - 40 (post 226) = 10
Grand total: 705
15.6 BtW Constant TravelerRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (published 1929)
15 pt. task
+15 bonus
Task total:30
Grand total: 310
Kate and Elizabeth!I'm so sorry to have put the two of you to so much work! I was looking at the Summer Style Categories rather than the Fall. Ugh. I'm so rusty at this. Sorry again!
Anika wrote: "Kate and Elizabeth!I'm so sorry to have put the two of you to so much work! I was looking at the Summer Style Categories rather than the Fall. Ugh. I'm so rusty at this. Sorry again!"
Not to worry, Anika!
20.6 UnderratedThe White Dominican by Gustav Meyrink
+20 task (126 ratings)
+ 5 combo (10.4 9 letters)
+10 oldies (1921)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 90
10.6 Short StuffBlind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
+10 task
+10 Not a Novel (short stories)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 595
20.4 - RealismHadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy
I have read some of Tolstoy’s longer tomes and I was curious to find out if a shorter work would be as satisfying. The answer for me was almost. I enjoyed learning about this character from Russian history and about a conflict that still influences the country in the present day. I felt the inner conflicts Murat faced trying to keep his family safe and choose sides. I enjoyed the straightforward writing style and I chose the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky purposefully because they capture Russian works in English in a way that I find accessible and enjoyable. The characterizations were insightful and a highlight of the book as well. The depth of the longer works, especially compared to Anna Karenina, could not be achieved in this shorter novel, but I enjoyed it just the same.
+20 Task: on the list of authors
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1916)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 1985
10.1 — Square PegThe Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
Review:
This is really two books in one. The first half is an excellent guide on how to write non-fiction well: not the mechanical aspects, but the stylistic ones. In particular he points out the differences between ‘classic style’ — which he espouses as the usually the best option when writing a piece for a general audience (articles, editorials, blog posts etc) — and other possible styles, such as ‘practical style’ (for memos, manuals, research reports, term papers), contemplative/romantic style, oratorical style, etc; and, more particularly ‘plain style’. At its most basic: plain style sets out something that everyone can see; in classic style the author has worked hard to find the perfect viewpoint to see the things that most people miss, and the writing is about bringing the reader to that place.
He spends several wonderful chapters giving lots of examples of what this means in practice, and on how this helps overcome the “Curse of Knowledge” that cripples many writers (the better you understand something, the harder it is for you to remember what it was like not to understand it at all.)
If the book had stopped there it would be an easy five stars. But it doesn't. The remainder of the book is then taken up with what are often rather complex and dry examinations about the structure of writing: from sentence diagramming through an extended exploration of every disputable point of grammar and punctuation. This section would certainly be useful reference material for a writer, but it's a tough slog to simply read through. So the book averages out a ★★★ for me.
[It turns out that section I loved is mostly just a précis of a little known French book, which I subsequently sought out: of that, more later…]
+10 Task (doesn't fit anything else that I can see)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 2005
10.8 - rated The Shining five starsWizard and Glass by Stephen King
+10 task
+15 jumbo (845 pages)
task total: 25
grand total: 1640
20.6 - 233 ratingsThe Endorphin Conspiracy by Fredric Stern
+20 task
+5 combo (10.4)
task total: 25
grand total: 1665
20.3 - Thieves & MysteriesThe Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
#4 on top 150 books from this list of Thieves
+20 Task (1000L)
+10 Oldies (1937)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 60
20.9 War BabiesClient (Stanley Hastings #5) by Parnell Hall
Review:
Our bumbling PI returns with his first proper non-friends-and-family client: a man who thinks his wife is cheating on him, and wants her followed. So Stanley gets to work, eventually following her to a motel, where she has a strange visitor, and (you can presumably see where this is going by now) promptly ends up dead. And then, of course, the murder weapon turns up in Stanley's car.
There are a few great moments, but for a series that mostly only works by flowing so smoothly, the story gets bogged down too often, and also relies a little too much on coincidences at key times to get more than ★★★.
+20 Task [born 1944]
+5 combo [20.6 Underrated (64 ratings)]
+10 review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 2040
20.6 UnderratedPerformance Theory by Richard Schechner
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4-Performance)
+5 Oldies (p. 1988)
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 255
15.2 Between the warsTime Leaper
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre 1938
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 620
20.5 PoliticsIn the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo by Michela Wrong
Review:
Joseph-Desiré Mobutu (or, as he preferred to be known: Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga — “The warrior who knows no defeat because of his endurance and inflexible will and is all powerful, leaving fire in his wake as he goes from conquest to conquest”), with his leopard-skin hat and Buddy Holly-glasses is in many ways the classic stereotype of an African "Big Man" dictator.
Michela Wrong, a freelance journalist in then-Zaire, now-DRC, witnessed firsthand much of his rise, his excesses, and his subsequent fall, and spins an at-times fascinating tale of The Leopard, his entourage, and all the forces that not only enable such a story, but almost make it inevitable. In theory it's the sort of book that I should love, but I found it surprisingly difficult to maintain interest, and the writing style started to irritate me after the first few chapters. It's certainly not a bad book, and for someone who simply wants to know more about what happened post-independence, it's likely a great overview, with the story very well told — but I prefer books that offer a lot more insight. ★★.
+20 Task
+5 combo [10.4 9,10,11 (Footsteps)]
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 2085
20.9 — War BabiesA Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
In contrast to In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, which I expected to love, but didn't, "A Year in Provence" was one that I expected to hate, but found wonderfully charming. It is (slightly more surprisingly than it really should have been) literally a tale of a single year — a chapter per month — of an English businessman who's sold his company, and bought a villa in the south of France, and the simple tale of the delights and tribulations of moving there and trying to live amongst the chaos of an "it will be finished any week now" full-scale renovation. And, of course, all the great food he and his (physically-present-but-narratively-usually-absent) wife devour along the way. These repeated culinary digressions do more than highlight a key difference between the [1980s] UK and France, they also give the whole book the feel of a great dinner-table raconteur telling you all about his latest adventures and travails as he tries to understand just what he's gotten himself into, with great humour and lots of little micro-insights and realisations — not of grand sweeping cultural differences between The French™ and The English™, but simply of the charming characteristics of the curious characters he encounters from day to day. ★★★★
+20 Task (born 1939)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
+5 oldies (1989)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 2130
10.1 - Square PegGone Girl - Gillian Flynn
After reading Sharp Objects for the summer challenge, I didn't have very high expectations for this one going in. I'm happy to say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised by this one. It's just a compulsively readable thriller, and definitely earned the hype surrounding it. There were lots of twists and turns, and while none of the characters are particularly likable, they're all just so screwed up and interesting that you want to know how things will turn out for them (even though you're not necessarily hoping they'll get a happy ending). I wasn't at all a fan of the ending (it felt very messy and definitely earned an eye-roll from me) but otherwise I really enjoyed this one.
+10 task
+10 review
Post total: 20
Grand total: 220
10.2 - HalloweenLet the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 - mythology)
+5 jumbo
Post total: 20
Grand total: 240
10.3 - Leif EriksonHeadhunters - Jo Nesbø
This book was just pure fun ridiculousness start to finish! I'd seen the movie with my husband a couple years ago and enjoyed it, so I grabbed the book when it was a Kobo daily deal. So glad that I did, because I loved this book! It's not high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but it was well-written and just SO MUCH FUN! It's completely balls-to-the-wall over the top and ridiculous pretty much from page one. It's got forgery, art theft, secret technology, personal vendettas, professional vendettas, and about a hundred other insane plot points thrown in just for good measure. It could have been awful with so much going on (and really some parts are only verrrry loosely explained and tied in) but somehow it works, and works so well! I look forward to reading more of Nesbø's novels.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.4 - 11 letters)
Post total: 25
Grand total: 265
10.8 - Comfort ReadIced - Karen Marie Moning
I love the Fever series, but I have to admit I put this one off for quite a while since Dani drove me a little nuts in the other books. While I was right in assuming I'd like this one less than the other novels in the series, I think Moning did a good job of making Dani less entirely insufferable while still making it clear that yeah, she's still just a kid. There were some creepy parts with some of the male characters sexualizing her wayyyy more than I was comfortable with (given that she's 14) but even then, Moning handled them well (and did for the most part acknowledge that yes, she's only 14 and it's creepy). I definitely preferred having Mac as the narrator, but this addition to the series was much better than I expected, and it still had all of the great mythology, mystery and (to an extent) romance that made the rest of the series so fantastic.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.9 - Irish mythology)
Post total: 25
Grand total: 290
10.9 - MythologyMythology - Edith Hamilton
+10 task
+10 not a novel
+5 oldies (published 1942)
+10 combo (10.4 - 9 letters; 20.2 - born in Germany)
Post total: 35
Grand total: 325
20.6 - UnderratedThe Silent Gondoliers - William Goldman
(950 ratings)
What a fun, short novel! I was surprised to find this one would count for the underrated task, given that the author's other major novel is so beloved! I'd read and loved The Princess Bride, and this one was almost as good. It has the same kind of witty asides from the author, little notes sprinkled into the actual story, which I thought was a lot of fun. The story itself is a fable about why the gondoliers of Venice no longer sing. At 110 pages, I read it in one short sitting and it was definitely worth the time. The illustrations are a great complement to the story, and the author does a good job of making the book more geared towards adults despite it being an illustrated fable.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies (published 1983)
+5 combo (10.4 - 10 letters)
Post total: 40
Grand total: 365
15.5 BtW Constant Traveler1927-28
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 135
15.6 BtW Constant Traveler1929-30
Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 165
15.7 BtW Constant Traveler1931-32
Glory by Vladimir Nabokov
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 195
15.8 BtW Constant Traveler1933-34
To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 225
20.3 - Thieves and Mysteries Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung
+20 task (on both lists)
+10 combo (10.4 cracksman, 20.6 868 ratings)
+10 not a novel (short stories)
+10 oldies (1899)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 750
Thanks Rosemary for the book idea ;-)
20.6 - 75 ratingsConspiracy Theories by Kate Tuckett
+20 task
+5 combo (10.4)
+10 not a novel
task total: 35
grand total: 1700
20.6 - Underrated: A Dangerous Talent(most popular: Kindle) Dangerous Talent, A by Aaron Elkins
I decided on A Dangerous Talent for the Seasonal Reading Challenge because I had to read a book by two authors who were new to me. Since I’d looked at, but never read anything by Aaron Elkins, I decided to try out the first in the Alix London series which he writes in partnership with his wife, Charlotte. I loved the front cover and was thrilled when I opened to the prologue and found myself in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, one of my favorite places in the US! When I last visited there, I took in a lot of the history of Georgia O’Keeffe’s art and life as a recluse in the area, and I loved revisiting Abiquiu and Santa Fe. I also enjoy stories connected to art and the creation of it, so the fact that Alix London is an art consultant looking at a work by Georgia O’Keeffe also pulled me right into the story. The setting was the star of the show for me in this work. The writing itself is a bit stilted and the mystery is predictable at points, so it only earned 3 stars from me, but if you are a fan of mysteries about art or the southwest setting, I’d give it a try.
+20 Task: 2012, 663 ratings
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 - 9, 10, 11 (dangerous)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 2020
10.9 - MythologicalBlue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater, no lexile
+10 Task: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/...
Grand Total: 2030
10.9 MythologicalThe Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
+10 task
+5 combo (20.9, born 1939)
Task total 15
Grand total 580
Post 755 Kath wrote: "10.9 MythologicalThe Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
+10 task
+5 combo (20.9, born 1939)
Task total 15
Grand total 580"
+5 Combo 10.4
20.10 — Higher EducationThe 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger
Review:
It's difficult for me to read this as if I were an incoming college freshman, but I can see why it would be recommended reading in that scenario (even at a different college where the authors don't teach). I've read dozens of similar books, and whilst this one doesn't add much new, it neatly encapsulates a lot of basic thinking about thinking: pushing forward the core concepts that:
* It's always possible to understand something more deeply
* It's vital to make lots of mistakes along the way
* You need to get much better at asking lots and lots of questions
* Everything builds on previous ideas
* The key to getting better is continuous constructive change
It's short, easy to read, simple without being simplistic, with lots of good examples, and nice quotes (from others), and quotable bits of its own.
My biggest complaint is that the title is somewhat misleading. It's much more an "Elements of Effective Learning" than about effective thinking. In particular, it largely ignores most of the recent material about the common thinking traps we keep falling into, popularised in books like Thinking, Fast and Slow, Predictably Irrational, Everything is Obvious, You Are Not So Smart, etc.
So for me it's probably just a ★★★☆, but I'll round it up as I suspect it would indeed be a very useful book for freshmen interested in learning how to learn better.
+20 task: (UTexas)
+10 combo [10.4 9, 10, 11 (Effective), 20.6 Underrated (990 ratings)]
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
Task Total: 50
Grand total: 2180
20.4 RealismOn Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks
Review:
An honest, and therefore heart-wrenching, portrayal of infidelity, family responsibility, morality, and individuality. The characters are placed in a slow-paced novel chock-a-block with references to the Nixon vs. Kennedy campaign season and other scenes of life in New York, Washington, London, and (briefly) Moscow at the time. The characterizations in the book were wonderful--I definitely came to know and feel for these characters. And most of the time the writing was good. But the book moved slowly and the characters rarely were able to get out of their own heads long enough to think about what they were doing. The smoke-filled, alcohol-drenched parties were both fun to read and mind-dullingly boring. I wanted to love this book, and instead found it more like comfort food--enjoyable, but leaves one feeling heavy and dull afterward.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 735
20.10 - Higher Education -Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
I really appreciated the research behind the book. Quiet gave me insight into my introverted tendencies and explained my ability to cross over into extroverted behavior when necessary. I wish I had read it when I was still working and while everyone was asking me what my husband and I were going to “do” in retirement, when all we were waiting for was quiet reading time and togetherness. If I’d read it sooner, I could have answered that I would be introverted and quiet and proud of it! I felt the writing was strong and clear. I hope that people at both ends of the introvert/extrovert scale read the book and take the positives that it has to offer to heart in order to understand each other better. There were parts that I took issue with, but all in all, I felt it was a helpful book that helped me understand myself a little better.
+20 Task: Excellent choice for college discussion! /University of Austin http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/a...
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 - 9, 10, 11 (introverts)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel (Nonfiction)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total:2070
15.8 - BtW Constant Traveler1925-6: Under Satan's Sun by Georges Bernanos
+15 task
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 775
From Post 718Norma wrote: "20.6 Underrated
Video Kill by Joanne Fluke
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.9 War Babies)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 305"
+5 Oldies
From Post 671Karen Michele wrote: "20.10 - Higher Education - Liz M's Task:
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
Although the writing its..."
Sorry, I missed this Karen, Pakistan is not one of the countries in the traditional definition of Middle East we are using in 20.8.
Karen Michele wrote: "RwS Finish: 100
Mega Finish:200."
Congrats on your Mega Finish, Karen!
Eleanor wrote: "Kate S wrote: "From Post 647I'm sorry Eleanor, I do not see Tressell on the linked list of Realism authors (20.4). Did I miss him, did you mean to note a different task for this combo?
I meant ..."
Thank you, Eleanor. Got it.
Joanna wrote: "I need to move a book.In Post 226, I posted The Haunting of Hill House for 10.7.
I'd like to move that to 20.7 Slipstream:
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.7, 20.9)
+10 Review (in post..."
Moved. :)
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Reading with Style
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I'm sorry Eleanor, I do not see Tressell on the linked list of Realism authors (20.4). Did I miss him, did you mean to note a different task for this combo?
I meant 20.5, oops