Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
FA 2014 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2014
20.3A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
+20 task - #8 on Victorian Mysteries
+10 oldies (1886)
task total: 30
grand total: 45
10.4 - 9, 10, 11The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
Review:
These essays cover everything from politics to literature. The "braindead megaphone" is a metaphor Saunders uses to describe the news media in his rather scathing title essay. He believes news reporting has been ruined by the drive to make a profit, and has made us dumber. In "Thank You, Esther Forbes", Saunders explains how as a third-grader, he was inspired to become a writer after reading Johnny Tremain, in which Forbes "awoke a love for sentences" in him. In "Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra," Saunders has good things to say about Slaughterhouse-Five. There is a humorous essay recounting Saunders' experience teaching a creative writing class using the short story "The School" by Donald Barthelme. There is a good essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which Saunders addresses alleged racism in the novel, among other things. I learned a lot about Dubai in the travel piece, "The New Mecca." Saunders states that "Dubai is, in essence, capitalism on steroids." I knew nothing about Dubai before reading this, and was astounded at what I read. He also describes a trip to Nepal to view the "Buddha Boy" in 2006. I enjoy reading essays by writers whose fiction I like, and I found this collection to be intelligent, entertaining, and very humorous.
+10 Task (two nine-letter words in title)
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
Task total=30
Grand total=75
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 29 Deedee wrote: "Task 10.4 - 9, 10, 11:
9=Awakening
Artemis Awakening (Artemis Awakened #1) (2014) by Jane Lindskold (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 304 pages)
Review:Jane Lindskold..."
+5 Combo 20.6 Underrated (240 ratings)
I feel I must point out that Artemis Awakening was published in May 2014
Thanks, Deedee. I wasn't watching pub dates for this task - my noodle has been retrained!
10.7 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C...2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke
+10 task
+5 combo (20.9 - b.1917)
+5 oldies (1987)
task total: 20
grand total: 65
10.2 HalloweenIn the Night Room by Peter Straub
+10 Task (#92 on Top 100 Horror Books list)
+5 Combo (20.9, born 2 March, 1943)
Task Total = 15
Grand Total = 25
From Post 26Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "20.9 - War Babies
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 9/5/14
20.9 - Shirley Jackson was born 1916
Review:
The Haunting of Hill House was disappointing to ..."
+5 Combo 10.7-Honored Authors
From Post 35Eleanor wrote: "20.7 – Make it Strange
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
+20 task
+10 oldies (pub. 1915)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 75"
+10 Combo 10.5-Dr. Salk literature and medicine list; 10.7-Honored Authors
Kate S wrote: "From Post 26Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "20.9 - War Babies
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 9/5/14
+5 Combo 10.7-Honored Authors..."
Thanks, Kate!
20.2 BirthplaceTransAtlantic by Colum McCann
Review:
Colum McCann has woven a story about four generations of fictional women with three actual events featuring some very admirable men from history. The characters cross the Atlantic, by ship or by plane, from Ireland to North America and back. The search for freedom, and the tragedy of war on both continents figures in their lives.
In Dublin in 1845-46, Frederick Douglas is on a lecture tour, selling his book to raise money for the abolitionist cause. The Irish are dying of hunger during a terrible famine. A poor Irish maid, Lily Duggan, is inspired by Douglas' speeches about freedom, and crosses the Atlantic by ship in search for a better life.
In Newfoundland in 1919, two aviators who had flown in World War I transformed a bomber into a plane with multiple fuel tanks. Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown headed for Ireland in the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Lily's daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, were a reporter and a photographer covering the event. At that time, it was very unusual for women to have occupations in the press.
In 1998, Senator George Mitchell flew from New York to Belfast to oversee the peace talks with the British and various Irish groups. He meets Lottie, who had settled in Northern Ireland, and her daughter Hannah. The family had suffered through a heartbreaking event during The Troubles. This is the slowest section of the book where the author dwells too long on everyday events like drinking cups of tea, sitting around the airport, and meeting a chauffeur.
The book goes back and forth through time, and between continents. It continues to the present day as Hannah ages in Northern Ireland. The book shows both the strength and vulnerability of the generations of Lily's family members during hardship and plenty, war and peace.
+20 task (author born in Dublin, Ireland)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 110
15.2 - BtW - Constant TravelerEugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State by G.K. Chesterton (1922)
+15 task
+15 bonus (second book)
Task total: 30
Grand Total 105
10.8 Comfort ReadThe Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall
Review
I love this series! I’ve listened to all three prior books as audios and that is the best way to go. Hall gets the cadences, the colloquialisms, the quaint “Hinglish” mixture just right and the narrator does an excellent job of carrying this out. Puri, the “Most Private Investigator” is scheduled for a break with his family to take a holy pilgrimage but ends up helping the Love Commandos instead, which results in preventing another murder. This book brings up the many issues India faces as it sheds its third world image and yet still keep its unique, and ancient culture. Not an easy task with the quantum leap from old to new in the world’s largest democracy. A democracy filled with multiple ethnicities, religions and languages. Addressing the caste system, the corruption of public officials and politicians, horrendous traffic and arranged marriages the book does open your heart to these people and the pains they suffer yet unlike most books set in India, there is also the visibility of the humor and good will that keeps the Indian citizens thriving. Very few books set in India give you a chance to laugh and it is a welcome refreshing change.
The characters could easily come form any Punjabi family in Delhi. Yes, they are stereotyped to a degree but you could believe them drawn from true individuals. Listening to the accents, the family relationships and the descriptions of familiar places, takes me back to the New Delhi I most loved.
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+ 5 pts - Combo (10.4)
Task Total - 25 pts
Grand Total - 25 pts
20.6 UnderratedThe Living Year by Mary Q. Steele
Review
Mary Q Steele along with her husband has written many well-known children’s books in the 60’s and 70’s including one I remember well, Miss Osborne the Mop . She was also a naturalist. This little book is like a bowl of wild, plump blackberries, still warm from the sun. It reads like a journal, month by month describing little vignettes of her forages into the forests of East Tennessee’s Appalachian Mountains. At the writing of this book in 1972 she was living on Signal Mountain, Tennessee, which happens to be my new home. Although she bemoans the loss of woods and natural habitat to the building of houses and development I find her descriptions spot on of the wildlife around here and the forests. One of the reasons we chose to come here was for all the natural beauty and to allow our family the chance to be familiar with the forest. I’m so eager now to follow in her footsteps, sitting still and quiet so I may get a chance to see some of the most priceless treasures this state has to offer.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Not a Novel
+ 5 pts - Oldies -1972
Task Total - 45 pts
Grand Total - 70 pts
15.3 BtW - Constant TravelerThe Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby, 1924
+15 task
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 225 points
20.9 - War BabiesThe World According to Garp by John Irving
John Irving is a master at beginning a novel with a character’s coming of age and then taking it from there. He gets the voice of adolescence right because his young characters are always unique and a bit quirky allowing him some license to create interesting young people to play against his adults. I had never read The World According to Garp and I am so glad I got to remedy that situation. The book has the mix of characters and situations that I love reading about described in Irving’s impeccable writing. Even the subjects I don’t enjoy as much are putty in his hands. I always enjoy Irving’s ventures into controversial characters and subjects even when he delves into the darker sides of life. The World According to Garp doesn't quite stand among my favorites, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules and A Son of the Circus, but it was a great read just the same.
+20 Task: Irving was born in 1942 http://john-irving.com/john-irving-bio/
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 - 9, 10, 11 (according)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1978)
+ 5 Jumbo (609)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 100
Task 10.10 - Group ReadsRing of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
Review (aimed more at other GR readers. I certainly wouldn't want to encourage people here to skip the first half of the book...)
I almost abandoned this after the first couple of chapters. The tale of Maxwell moving to the remove Scottish highlands (by a slightly circuitous route involving buying a whole island for an ill-fated shark-catching business venture), with only his dog for company, was pleasant enough, but generally rather dull. After reading a few reviews that said things pick up after a few chapters, I decided to stick it out a while longer. For any future readers pondering the same question, I’d like to be much more specific: Things start getting interesting in Chapter 6, and really get going in Chapter 7. Feel free to skip everything before that. You’ll miss a tiny bit of context, but the book is written by a somewhat unreliable narrator[1], and jumps about quite oddly at times anyway.
The remainder of the book, taken simply at face value, is delightful. His sheer joy at having an otter, not so much as a pet (he comes to discover rather quickly that otters aren’t like dogs: “they co-exist with humans rather than being owned by them”), but as the most important relationship in his life, is infectious, and it’s no surprise that this book seemingly created an entire generation of naturalists.
[1] Kathleen Raine jarringly gets a one sentence passing reference half-way through that makes it clear she was a hugely important figure in the story, but otherwise is excised entirely.
--
10 task
+5 combo: 20.9 War Babies (born 1914)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Oldies (1960)
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 145
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley, 1919
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 115
10.8 - Comfort ReadThe Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
Review:
I was totally engrossed by this dual-time narrative and stayed up late finishing it. In the 1960s, unhappily married Jennifer Stirling wakes in hospital to find an accident has robbed her of the chance to be with a lover she can't remember. 40 years later, journalist Ellie Howarth finds one of their letters and tries to piece together the story.
There are no surprises here (unless you don't happen to guess what happened to Anthony) and it could be annoying in its series of "if only"s, but Jojo Moyes handles it so well, I didn't mind any of that. I wasn't quite so convinced by Ellie's story and its ending, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.
+10 task (I rated 'The Girl You Left Behind' 5 stars in 2013 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 245 points
20.4 - RealismThe Living Corpse by Leo Tolstoy
Because of the Reading with Style Challenge I have become a fan of plays and poetry. When I saw The Living Corpse come up in a search of Leo Tolstoy’s works, I had to get a hold of it. I was not disappointed. The story is of a man who finds out his wife loved another before him. He decides to find a way to allow them a chance at happiness and goes to unusual extremes to make it possible. What I like about plays is the emphasis on dialog to move the plot forward. When I read assigned plays in school, I was distracted by the speaker names, having to pause and read each one before the dialog. I couldn't keep the thread of the story going until I learned to read the dialog as if I was watching the play on stage. Now I find plays fulfilling and unique reading experiences. I’m glad I tracked down this lesser known work by a favorite classic author.
+20 Task: on given list
+ 5 Combo: 20.6 - Underrated (1900, 51)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel (Play)
+10 Oldies (1900)
Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 170
20.10 - Higher EducationBook: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Link to university page: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/site/atagla...
Review:
I didn't like this book because I was so disappointed. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar had such an impact on me. I LIKED the woman who wrote that book. She was a good writer, she had things to say that were worth saying. There was very little in this book that impacted me the same way - which, again, is strange considering how closely our experiences mirror each other. I didn't really sympathize with her. She is not a likable person. This is not good writing. I don't need to know whether or not she is physically attracted to every man she encounters on the trail. I spent so much time wondering if she was going to hook up with a random trail dude or not because she set up every scenario with a man in the context of a sexual relationship. It distracted me from focusing on what she was actually saying about that person or that part of the trip or whatever. Is that really what she wanted us to ponder? I mean, I'm so far from a prude. I don't care. But it was just boring and kept me from getting absorbed in what I thought the book was about, which was mourning her mother.
If you'd like to read more, please check the link for a full review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
+10 task
+10 review
+10 not a novel
Task total: 30
Grand total: 30
First task completed! :)
Claire wrote: "it's long so I thought a link would be better - not sure if this is okay to link to it or if I need to post it here in its entirety? Please let me know!"We need at least an abridged version - 100 characters or so - and then you can link to the longer version.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Claire wrote: "it's long so I thought a link would be better - not sure if this is okay to link to it or if I need to post it here in its entirety? Please let me know!"We need at least an abridge..."
Thanks - will edit to include.
Claire wrote: +10 task +10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
First task completed! :) "
Hi Claire!
I'm new here myself, but I'm pretty sure you can get another 10 points for “Not a Novel” on this one too.
Task 20.8 - Middle EastShah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński
Review:
“All books about all revolutions begin with a chapter that describes the decay of tottering authority or the misery and sufferings of the people. They should begin with a psychological chapter, one that shows how a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid.”
On its surface this is a book about the Iranian Revolution of 1979. But it’s really much, much more. With superb writing style, fascinating structure, and an incredible eye for both the wider context and the human detail, Kapuściński pieces together lots of little mini-vignettes, to show, rather than simply tell, not so much what happened, but why, mixed throughout with his thoughts — distilled through having reported on dozens of previous revolutions before this one — on power, fear, secrecy, democracy, oil, development, corruption, symbols and metaphors, movements and structures, the difference between revolution and revolt, and enough of a broad sweep of history to provide sufficient context, without getting tangled in the tendentious details (and one of the better Sunni vs Shia explanations I’ve ever read.)
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, blow-by-blow account, you won’t find it here. This book is significantly more valuable than that. Though the details may change, the central story keeps playing out again and again and again, and will likely continue to do so. Most of this is as relevant to the revolutions of the past few years, as it was to thirty-five years ago.
20 task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Oldies (1982)
+5 combo: 10.7 - Honored Authors (Ryszard Kapuściński Award for literary reportage)
Task total: 50
Grand Total: 195
Tony wrote: "Claire wrote: +10 task +10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
First task completed! :) "
Hi Claire!
I'm new here myself, but I'm pretty sure you can get another 10 points for “Not a Novel” o..."
You're so kind! Thanks, Tony!
20.6 - UnderratedThe Adventures Of Sir Samuel Tuke Full Authentic Text Of Tuke's Play And Suggestions For Staging The Adventures Of Five Hours by Samuel Tuke
+20 Task (p. 1663 (per Wikipedia); 3 ratings)
+5 Combo (10.6-Adventures-10 letters)
+20 Oldies (p. 1663)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 55
20.6 - UnderratedThe Man of Mode by George Etherege
+20 Task (p. 1676; 346 ratings)
+20 Oldies (p. 1676)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 50
Grand total: 105
10.2 HalloweenThe Hot Zone by Richard Preston
In college, I took a class on emerging diseases. This was not an especially challenging course; it was more “Science for People Who Like to Read Rather Than Conduct Labs.” However, I learned quite a bit about disease vectors and so on (information which I now put to good use in fueling my WebMD searches!). I may have read excerpts from The Hot Zone at some point during that class, but I had forgotten the specifics. Given the recent Ebola outbreak, I was curious how my reading of the book would connect with what I was reading in the news. Of course, it’s terrifying to realize how quickly viruses can adapt, travel, jump species, and so on. But something I didn’t expect was how Preston’s writing makes the virus feel so alive. Sometimes it’s irritating – the virus isn’t REALLY demonic and evil – but at other points it becomes so clear that viruses, like other predators, like humans, are just doing what they are designed to do.
+10 task (#48 on the 50 Scariest Books of All Time list)
+5 combo (10.5 - #8 on list)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 55
15.1 – BtW – Constant TravelerThe Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley (pub. 1919)
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 110
10.8 Comfort ReadThe Winter Long by Seanan McGuire
Review: This is eighth book in McGuire’s October Daye urban fantasy series, and it is NOT the place to start. It’s set in a complicated world where the fae realms meet up with modern-day San Francisco. I love this series mainly for the characters – October has actually grown significantly across the eight books, and that’s not always the case. In this installment, the big bad is not totally vanquished, so there is plenty more for the next story. McGuire seems to be starting to wrap things up, which is sad, but I’m excited to see how all the pieces are put together.
+10 Task ( I rated Chimes at Midnight 5 stars )
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 130
20.1 19th CenturyFrankenstein by Mary Shelley
I think I would have liked this book better if I knew what kind of book it was from the outset. I had some inkling that this was not a horror book, but it amazes me that a story so famous it has become part of our shared culture could be so unknown at the same time. Shelley is not interested in how Victor Frankenstein brought someone to life, nor in suspense or thrills at all. She does seem to be focused on the difficulties of loneliness, however, and the importance of family and community. The creature Frankenstein makes is an intelligent reasoning being whose inherent desire is to be good and to make friends. Not only is he ostracized or hunted down by everyone he encounters, he is denied sympathy or help from his creator. The only horror in the book is in Frankenstein's attempt to avoid all responsibility for his actions, and his constant fear that he cannot get away scot free. But since he refuses to help create a companion for his creation, all the creature has left to focus on is revenge, and Victor deserves everything he gets.
As I write this up I can't help thinking I should have liked it better. There is a lot to think about, and a lot of interesting ideas floating around in it. Perhaps I just needed to have a different frame of mind when I read it.
20 pt. task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.2, 10.4, 10.5)
+ 15 oldies (published 1818)
Task total: 60
Grand Total: 60
20.4 RealismThe Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg byMark Twain
Review:
This was rather disappointing. I liked the premise: A stranger, passing through the most honest and upright town in America is slighted, and plots revenge. Not the “trivial revenge” of just killing a couple of the ill-doers — after all, “the dead do not suffer”. No, this offence cuts so deep that nothing would suffice but the corruption of the entire town, such that not even a single resident would escape unhurt.
Unfortunately the execution is somewhat lacking (both in the plan itself, and in the telling of it). The way it unfolds seems a little too contrived, and much of the behaviour seems rather far fetched. Perhaps this resonated much more strongly a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t seem to have aged well.
+20 Task (Twain listed on page 2)
+15 combo (10.7 Honored Authors + 10.4 9,10,11 (Corrupted/Hadleyburg) + Underrated (897 Reviews)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1898)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 250
20.10 – Higher EducationAn Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
+20 task (on list of Berkeley Summer Reading )
+15 combo (10.3 Leif Erikson shelved 6 times as norway, 10.7 Norwegian Ibsen Award, 20.4 – Realism Authors)
+10 not-a-novel (play)
+10 oldies (pub. 1882)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 140
15.4 BtW - Constant TravelerThe Professor's House by Willa Cather, 1925
+15 task
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 275 points
Post 83 Jama wrote: "20.1 19th CenturyFrankenstein by Mary Shelley
I think I would have liked this book better if I knew what kind of book it was from the outset. I had some inkling that ..."
-5 Combo for 10.4 - Frankenstein is 12 letters
Task 20.5 - Politics:From: Main page "Political novels"
Headlong (1980) by Emlyn Williams (Hardcover, 287 pages)
Review: This is the book that inspired the 1991 movie “King Ralph” (see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102216/?... ). The premise: a freak accident kills the entire British Royal Family. Genealogists track down the next in line to the throne. In the movie, set in the 1980s, next-in-line is a working class American named Ralph (and played by John Goodman). The novel was published in 1980. In the novel, the tragedy that removed the British family occurred in 1935. The next-in-line is “Jack Green”, a working class lad who has found steady work in the theatre, working as an assistant stage manager and as a “bit” actor doing a bit of singing, a bit of dancing, a bit of acting (1-3 lines per play). Jack Green is discovered by the Palace, taken to the Palace, and trained to be King. There is a lot of detail about the “training to be King”. There is a lot of detail about life as a theatre worker. The theatre scenes have the feel of reality about it; and, indeed, the goodreads biography of Mr. Williams says: “As an actor, he had appeared in 41 films and teleplays, plus made numerous appearances on stage.”
Even though this book is listed under “Political novels” there is not much political in it – unless – maybe it’s political to think that a working class guy can do as good a job as “King of England” as someone born to the role? Recommended for those whose guilty pleasure is reading the “life of the royals” articles in magazines.
+20 Task (#20.5 Politics)
+05 Combo (#20.6 Underrated)
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1939-1989)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 05 + 10 = 40
Grand Total: 80 + 40 = 120
10.4 - 9, 10, 11:The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
9 letter word: butterfly
This book is an autobiographical work where the author suffered a massive stroke and could only blink his left eye afterwards. He “dictated” this work by blinking as a person recited through the alphabet. I expected this book to be sad and somewhat depressing but it wasn’t at all. Instead, I was completely overwhelmed by just how he retained his sense of humour throughout- despite the helplessness of his situation, he has amazingly retained his spirit and his mind was soared even higher. And as funny as this sound, I was a little disappointed that the reason for the title was spelt out right at the beginning of the book!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 155
Ashley wrote: "20.6 - UnderratedThe Adventures Of Sir Samuel Tuke Full Authentic Text Of Tuke's Play And Suggestions For Staging The Adventures Of Five Hours by Samuel Tuke
+20 T..."
+10 Not a novel
Ashley wrote: "20.6 - UnderratedThe Man of Mode by George Etherege
+20 Task (p. 1676; 346 ratings)
+20 Oldies (p. 1676
Task Total: 40
Grand total: 85"
+10 Not a novel
Heather wrote: "10.1Feed by Mira Grant
+10 task
task total: 10
grand total: 75"
+5 Jumbo (599 pages in MPE)
Heather wrote: "20.3A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
+20 task - #8 on Victorian Mysteries
+10 oldies (1886)
task total: 30
grand total: 45"
+5 Combo 20.1 shelved as 19th century 136 times
15.3 - BtW - Constant TravelerScientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins (1923)
+15 task
+15 bonus (third book)
Task total: 30
Grand Total 280
20.2 BirthplaceA World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen
I liked the premise for this story, and I wish the author had thought more of it herself to lengthen and strengthen it. As it is, it leaves much to be desired. The reader is left wondering too much. If you're one who likes to fill in between the lines with conjectures of your own, you might like this more than I did. Or maybe I just don't have enough imagination and understanding and need to have things spelled out.
I have never been one who could accurately predict what comes next. On school tests was the inevitable question "what do you think will happen? I always - or almost always - got the wrong answer. (Quibble: I always got it right if the question is "what do you think...", but unhappily that wasn't really the question.) The ending in this seemed quite out of the blue and felt totally unrelated to the rest of the novel. Refer to paragraph one: I can't read between the lines.
I must remark on the non-standard sentence structure. I never did quite become accustomed to it. Not for this had she come. And Crystal the chandelier dripped into the sunset; tense little lit lamps under peach shades were easily floated in upon by the gold of evening. Day had not done with the world yet; trees were in the conspiracy. This should have been a quicker read, even for this slow reader. I kept tripping over this sort of thing, having to re-read.
+20 Task (born Ireland)
+ 5 Combo (20.6 - 160 ratings)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (pub 1955)
Task total = 40
Grand Total = 80
10.7 - Honored AuthorsWise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
Review:
The story of a young man named Hazel Motes who returns to his Tennessee home after serving in World War 2 to find everybody and everything gone. He goes to a town where he preaches a kind of anti-religion and is hounded by, and hounds, two fake preachers. There's a boy who steals a mummified corpse from a museum, and various unattractive women. In fact, I found all of the characters deeply unattractive, the kind of people that any sane person would run a mile from. Still, for me, the book was redeemed by its vivid descriptions and the kind of car-crash fascination that it evokes. Flannery O'Connor brings everything amazingly to life, though I almost wished she wouldn't.
+10 task http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery...
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1952)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 300 points
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Mysterious Rider by Zane Grey pub. 1919
+15 pts - Task
Grand Total - 85 pts
20.1 - 83 timesThe Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
+20 task
+5 combo (20.3 - #13)
+10 oldies (1890)
task total: 35
grand total: 120
10.1 Square PegThe Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
This was the choice of my book club for September. While I enjoyed the story from a purely plotting perspective, overall the book didn't capture me. I felt that the characters were largely annoying, the coincidences too often a driver of the plot, and the symbolism too heavy. Many in my club adored the book though, so perhaps I'm just too serious or expect to much from what was, at heart, a light book.
The book traces three families, tied together by myriad coincidences and relationships. The book tries to ask hard moral questions: if you found a letter addressed to you from your husband marked to be opened only after his death, would you open it? What responsibility do you owe to your family? To society? Can sins ever be forgiven? What would you do for freedom?
It's hard to discuss the details of my objections without spoiling the plot, which doesn't seem nice since this book is all plot. So I'll just leave it by saying that I'm not sorry I read this book, but I'm not sure I'll be rushing to find more by this author.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
15.2 - BtW - Constant Traveler, 1921-1922Babbit by [author:Sinclair Lewis|7330 (1922)
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 200
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Quantum Leap: Obsessions (other topics)The Secret Place (other topics)
Dracula (other topics)
The Trial of Andrew Johnson (other topics)
Stranger Things Happen (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Carol Davis (other topics)Tana French (other topics)
Bram Stoker (other topics)
Noel B. Gerson (other topics)
Noel B. Gerson (other topics)
More...
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein - rated Stranger in a Strange Land 5 stars
+10 task
+5 oldies (1966)
task total: 15
grand total: 15