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FA 2014 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2014
15.4 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Square Emerald by Edgar Wallace (1926)
+15 task
+15 bonus (fourth book)
Task total: 30
Grand Total 310
10.4 9, 10, 11Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
(lexile 920)
Review:
This was a sad and uncomfortable book to read. Lochan and Willa act as parents to their little brothers and sister while their alcoholic mom spends the majority of her time working or with her boyfriend. They are one year apart in age and have felt more like partners, friends, and soulmates rather than brother and sister. This bond forms into a love that is taboo, yet feels so right to them. No good can come from this. Lochan's a bright student, yet he is painfully socially awkward outside of his home. Willa has friendships, but does not form crushes on boys like most girls do.
This mother should never have had children.
There were times when I wanted to shout at different characters in the book. How could social services not find out about the neglect? Would this relationship have happened if they had parents in the house? The ending was crushing. Though the relationship feels so wrong, you have to feel for these kids and the situation they were in. This is YA, but I would say very dark YA with some graphic scenes.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 40 points
10.2 - HalloweenThe Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Lexile 750 - no styles
+10 task (on the 50 Scariest Books list)
Task total: 10
Grand Total: 310 points
10.1 - Square Peg: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan has just made it onto the Man Booker Prize Shortlist and it is a well-deserved spot! Flanagan delves into the lives of Australian soldiers and their captors in a brutal Japanese prison camp where they are building the Thai-Burma Death Railway. Coincidentally, I recently watched a movie starring Colin Firth, The Railway Man, which was also centered on memories of torture in this camp. I was able to visualize the book and the location of the camp and railway, but read a unique plot with connections to some of the scenes in the movie. This enhanced the book although it already shone with the fine writing Flanagan accomplishes. The main character of the book, the surgeon Dorrigo Evans, is engaging and the writing gives us a look into his coming of age and his later years as well. The book does contain some of the most horrific descriptions of prison camp life and death that I have ever read. With that said, though, both the book and the movie are highly recommended.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 220
15.5 - BtW - Constant TravelerPropaganda by Edward L. Bernays (1928)
+15 task
+15 bonus (fifth book)
Task total: 30
Grand Total 340
20.1 - 19th C:Là-Bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans
I was hoping this would be a creepy get-ready-for-Autumn read, but it wasn't. The story is about an author that is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais, a notorious satanist. And while horrible events are described, they are told at a distance as the narrator discusses them with a friend and with very little suspense - its more of a factual retelling. So there's a much bigger "eeew" factor than "eeep" factor.
For some reason, I had it stuck in my head that this was a Faustian story and I kept waiting for a particular turn of events to happen (they never did). So in a way I wasn't reading this book at all. Finally, I could only find this work online in a free translation, which I think was too stiff and impeded the story.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 oldies (1891)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 40
20.7 - Make it strange:Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
It is a fascinating, horrifying story of Jim's incarceration in a Japanese concentration camp in Shanghai during WWII. In the chaos of the fall of Shanghai, Jim is separated from him parents and, at first, manages to fend for himself but eventually is reduced to a state of desperation that leads him to force the Japanese soldiers to capture him. He spends the rest of the war in various concentration camps in/near Shanghai.
Jim is obviously a very intelligent young boy with a restless, untameable energy and curiosity. His efforts to survive, to get enough eat, slowly warp any social morals he might have once had leaving a curious blend of purely selfish acts and seemingly altruistic acts that stem from knowing that many of the adults around him had to survive if he was to survive.
Not only is the plot compelling, but there is also a wonderful double-lens -- seeing the world from Jim's perspective, but also occasionally seeing how the world, the adults around him, see Jim.
+20 task
+5 combo (10.10)
+10 review
+5 oldies (1984)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 80
10.6 - Short StuffGetting Even by Woody Allen
Allen's stories here tend mostly towards the absurd, and take two main approaches: The first is where the story is mostly just a loose set-up for a string of one-liners (“Can we actually ‘know’ the universe? My God, it’s hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown. The point, however, is: Is there anything out there? And why? And must they be so noisy?”) Like Monty Python, he delights in bringing highbrow philosophical and religious concepts crashing down to earth, but though these occasionally these hit the mark, they mostly rely on little more than zany unexpectedness. Where he shines, however, is in the stories that mine a single theme more deeply. Clear winners here are Mr. Big — where a Private Investigator is hired to find God, narrated in pitch perfect noir style; and The Gossage–Vardebedian Papers, about a rather anarchic correspondence-chess match.
+10 task (O. Henry Award winner, 1978)
+10 not-a-novel (short stories)
+10 review
+5 oldies (1966)
Task total: 35
Grand Total 375
20.5 PoliticsEmpress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang
Review: Jung Chang is the author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, which is the story of her family, especially the women, in China during the 20th century. In this book, Chang looks at the woman who ran China from 1861 through 1908 except for a few years. It was Cixi who dealt with the covetous Europeans and Japanese; who brought China out of the Middle Ages; who out-lawed foot binding; who had the Emperor's favorite concubine murdered; who murdered her adopted son; and who unleashed the Boxers. This is a readable account of Cixi's life and a fascinating and turbulent time in China's history. I would recommend this to readers interested in modern Chinese history or women leaders.
+20 Task
+5 Combo 10.4 (Concubine)
+10 Not-a-novel (biography)
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 75
10.3 Leif EricksonA Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Review: A Doll's House is a part of the western theatrical canon that I had neither read nor seen. It is also considered a feminist standard. And when you think of when it was written and first performed, it definitely fits that description. I would also label it a drawing room family drama. Nora, the wife, is somewhat of a feather-head who has bit off almost more than she can handle supposedly to save her husband's life but in the midst of a crisis precipitated by her machinations and her attempt to protect her husband's macho, she finds out that her husband is a self-centered, self-righteous dip and declares her independence.
I listened to the LA Theater's audio production which for the most part was excellent although the children's parts (a small number of lines)were obnoxious.
+ 10 Task shelved 42 times as Norway
+15 Combo
*20.4
*20.1 shelved 83 times as 19th century
*10.7 Norwegian Ibsen Award
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (a play)
+10 Oldies
Task total: 55
Grand total: 130
edited to add oldies credit
10.10 Group ReadOrfeo by Richard Powers
Review:
Richard Powers has written an engaging story about an aging avant-garde musician on the run from the authorities. Modern science and technology combine with the soaring beauty of music and art in this remarkable book.
Peter Els calls 911 when his dog dies, and the police officers notice he has a room full of lab equipment that he bought online. Els is attempting to insert a sequence of musical patterns into the DNA of a common bacteria that thrives around water sources, Serratia marcescens. A few days later when Els returns to his house after jogging, he sees a biohazard team from the Joint Security Task Force confiscating his lab. Fearing arrest, Els drives on by and finds he's already being called a dangerous bioterrorist by the media.
The book moves forward as Els travels west visiting meaningful places, and making peace with the people he loved the most in his life (like the journey of the musical Orpheus from Greek mythology.) At the same time, flashbacks give us the story of Peter's life as a child through his adult years as a composer and a professor. The book is not divided into chapters, but the parts are separated by Tweet-length epigraphs.
Powers has written some beautiful poetic prose as he describes Els listening to pieces of music that had deep meaning in his life. Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," which was written and performed for the first time in a Nazi POW camp, was especially unforgettable. His descriptions of the voices of Steve Reich's "Proverb" was absolutely gorgeous, and sent me to you.tube to listen to the music. Even the picture of Els listening to a bird chirping in a tree made me smile.
This was a moving story about the life of a man with the gift of special musical abilities. For years Els put his musical compositions ahead of his personal relationships, so his trip was a journey of redemption. "Orfeo" is especially recommended for those that love music and literary fiction.
npr review that includes mythical connection:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/2624832...
Thanks to Kate for this great choice for a group read!
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.9 mythological)
+10 review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 135
10.5 - Dr. SalkMigraine by Oliver Sacks
If you suffer from migraines as I do you'll find large sections of this book engaging and informative. The hows and whys are interesting, of course, and the historical sections held my interest more than I thought they would. I'm glad Dr. Sacks updated some chapters in the 1990's, though another edition for the new millennium wouldn't be out of place!
Some chapters had no relation to my own experience (pages and pages about everything aura, for example), but as a whole the book was well-written and interesting. A recommended read for migraine suffers as well as their loved ones, to give them a glimpse into the world of a migraineur.
+10 task (#138 on the list)
+5 combo (20.6 - 818 ratings)
+10 NaN
+10 review
+5 oldie (originally published in 1970)
Task total: 40 points
Grand total: 40 points
10.4. 9,10 or 11 An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
+10 task
+ 10 not-a-novel
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
15.3 - BtW - Constant Traveler, 1923-1924A Lost Lady by Willa Cather, 1923, canon
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 250
10.4 9,10.11Haunted Chattanooga by Jessica Penot & Amy Petulla
Review
When we visit cities, my son and I enjoy going on any Ghost Tour that’s offered or find books written by locals about the legends and ghost/monster stories of the area. This is a fun way to learn history, culture and geography of a new place. Some we have enjoyed so much, we have been several times, San Antonio, Tx, New Orleans, La and Vicksburg, MS being the top contenders and yes, we have the books often written by an author associated with the tour group. Recently moving to Chattanooga, I first bought such a book. Chattanooga is a historical town on the Tennessee River. Its past involves some major Civil War Battlefields, being a busy Railroad Hub as well as shipping to the Mississippi River and being a important site on the Cherokee Trail of Tears. Having family here, I have long known of the legend of Ole Green Eyes, a monster/demon who appears within the Chickamauga Battlefield National Park, The Chattanooga Choo-Choo and it’s friendly ghost, the haunting of The Delta Queen paddleboat and the mysterious stories surrounding the Hale’s Bar Dam which has been featured on a TV ghost-hunting show. I didn’t know about the River Serpent , a Loch Ness type monster living in the Tennessee River, the haunted caverns at Raccoon Mountain, the ghosts in certain cemeteries and in an old school and many more. Although these types of books are touristy, the details often vague and sometimes incorrect and of course each has their own version of each story, it still is fun light reading. For the perfect atmosphere read at home alone, on a full moon night, knowing that all of these places are 5 – 30 minutes driving distance from where you now sit. Boo!
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Combo (10.9-mythological, 20.6 - 5 ratings)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
Task total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 125 pts
10.10 Group ReadsTenth of December by George Saunders
Review
Like D, I have never read this author before and enjoyed getting to know him through this work. I agree with D’s review as well. I also noticed a lot of story themes concerning family relationships both good and bad and both, also in the American Dream, going from rags to riches and the hope to make it and the envy of those that have. So many of these people were poor and considered “trashy” and most worked a mundane low paying jobs. There is a burden of financial stress that puts a tension in the stories as the character keeps on with his illusion of the future while at the same time causing more debt and expense. The way Saunders exposes Society in these mind-bending stories is sometimes not so subtle as in the story Home. My Kindle version had an interview of the author by another fave of mine, David Sedaris. It is more of a warm dialogue between colleagues of their craft and gave a special insight into the making of short stories. Again like D, I would like to read Saunders again.
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Not a Novel
Task Total - 30 pts
Grand Total - 155 pts
15.5 BtW - Constant TravelerJournal of Katherine Mansfield, 1927
+15 task
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 340 points
20.4 - RealismThe Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (canon)
Review:
Maggie Tulliver's passionate nature puts her at odds with the world, from her adored older brother Tom to society as a whole as she fails to follow conventional patterns when she grows up. Nobody understands her - although several people love her, from her cousin Lucy to the two men who want to marry her, they all love different aspects of her, and even the one she feels is her soulmate cannot understand her motivation in the end.
I think this is a wonderful book. Of course it's highly romanticised and full of coincidence - the plot would have suited Thomas Hardy, but it's treated with a lighter touch.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (20.1 shelved 106 times)
+10 review
+15 oldies (1860)
+ 5 jumbo (579 pages)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 395 points
20.8 - Middle EastThe Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz
Said Mahran has recently been released from an Egyptian jail, but he hasn’t escaped the prison of his mind. In The Thief and the Dogs, Mahfouz traces Said’s descent into the madness of what he feels is necessary revenge. The book alternates between Said’s thoughts and narration of the action. He feels he has been wronged by his wife, her new partner and a former friend and becomes obsessed with killing them, choosing this path over his new freedom from jail. The writing is excellent and the reader feels the tension and fear of Said’s troubled mind and of those who come in contact with him. It isn’t the top psychological mystery I have read, but it is a strong book and a read worthy of your time.
+20 Task: set in Egypt
+15 Combo: 10.7 - Honored Authors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_M... / 20.3 - Thieves and Mysteries(#142) / 20.4 - Realism
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1961)
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 300
10.4 - 9, 10, 11Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
I've been a fan of the Hyperbole and a Half blog ever since a friend introduced me to "The Alot Is Better Than You At Everything," where author/artist Allie Brosh pokes fun at how frequently people misuse the term "a lot" as "alot." Brosh ingeniously turns "alot" into something she calls an Alot - an imaginary creature she describes as "a cross between a bear, a yak, and a pug." (If you haven't read this wonderful piece, you can find it here: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com...)
Brosh's book is a compilation of short works, some that have been published on her blog and others that appear for the first time in this collection. Some of them work better than others - I have three crazy rescue dogs and I find her writings about her relationship with her pups hilarious and endearing. She's very, very funny at times. But Brosh has also been recognized for writing openly about her struggles with depression, and the fact that she chooses manic, messy cartoon drawings to do that doesn't diminish the impact of her message. She writes about depression in a way that is honest and real and I imagine that her book and her blog have been a comfort to many people who struggle with mental illness.
Ultimately I don't think the blog translated to book as seamlessly as I wanted it to - blogs are often absorbed in small chunks, and perhaps this book wasn't meant to be read the way I did (all at once). However, it was still a funny, often poignant read and it's a book I'm glad that I own and can revisit.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel
Task total: 30
Grand total: 70
20.4 RealismThe Piazza Tales by Herman Melville
I have been studiously avoiding Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, which is on the 1001 list. The members of the group reading that list here on Goodreads have a sort of love/hate reaction to it; one of the things most often mentioned against it is the writing style. I decided I could preview that style by reading some of the author's shorter fiction.
The title story is the one I liked best. The language and style are poetic, and the story lends itself quite well in that direction. Bartleby, The Scrivener is said to be a story of loneliness. Benito Cereno started rather slow, but was a great adventure tale which I like best after The Piazza. the Lightning-Rod man was very short - an example (to me) of one's need to resist false sales pitches. The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles, was not to my liking at all, and unfortunately, was the longest of the six stories. It might have done well in its time, but there are many documentaries now on the Galapagos, so that I was not unfamiliar with both the scenery and some of the stories. The Bell Tower was, well, different than stories I might pick up on my own.
The GR description calls these short stories. I think that is half true. Half of them are what I would think of as short stories and the other half amble toward novella. I'm glad to have read them, but I didn't like them well enough to pick up Moby Dick. Perhaps some day, but that day won't be soon.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo (20.6, 263 ratings)
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (pub 1856)
Task Total = 50
Grand total = 130
10.9 - MythologicalThe Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson 9/14/14
Karen approved this book for this task in Message 7 of the task thread
Review:
I’ve had The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson in my TBR list for quite a while, planning to read that after finishing the 14 volume Wheel of Time Series begun by Robert Jordan and finished by Sanderson. I was a latecomer to WoT, first learning of the series when volume 12 was published. All are chunksters, so I’m now up to volume 10 and plan to finish this year.
The Way of Kings got bumped up when a friend asked me to do a Buddy Read this month, and I’m glad she did. This is the first book I’ve read by Sanderson, and I can certainly see why Jordan chose him to finish the last 3 books of WoT after he died. Sanderson’s story style is similar, and his imagination on a par with Jordan's.
This book has the elements I’ve come to expect from epic fantasies since a boyfriend introduced me to Dune many years ago. There is a war going on in the Shattered Plains of Roshar between the people of Alethkar and the tribal Parshendi who assassinated their King. While we don’t learn much about the Parshendi in this volume (first of a possible 10), we do learn much about the peoples of Alethkar and the ancients who came before them. Set in a time when war is waged with horses, shields, spears, and blades, we are introduced to Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, soldiers, and slaves. Women are the ones who read and write (few men do so), and lighter the eyes, the higher the class. Several characters are well-developed, while others are introduced and leave the reader hoping to read more of them in the next book.
Suffice it to say that the book held my interest enough to finish the 1,007 page tome in 8 days, of which I worked 6!
+10 task
+10 review
+25 jumbo (1,007 pages)
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 185
10.8 Comfort ReadsUnderdog by Laurien Berenson
I gave A Pedigree to Die For 5 stars.
Review
I started this series in the middle of the series so I went back and read the first book and now second book. Melanie Travis is a Special Education teacher turned amateur sleuth who happens to show dogs on the side. Now she has her own standard poodle to show and still new to the dog show world. She puts her puppy in training classes. Everything seems to go well until the teacher of the training class is murdered. It is up to her to figure out the killer. Will she place Best in Show when it comes to murder or just end up last? You will have to find out. I can say that I do love this series.
Style +10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 20
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand Total 15
10.5 - Dr SalkMountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Review:
In international aid and development, sustainability is a Very Big Deal. There are a great many problems in the world, and limited resources for dealing with them. So most institutional funders prefer projects that are cost-effective, don’t require continual ongoing funding, and don’t rely solely on one person doing something no-one else could replicate. This book is the story of an alternate route. Paul Farmer has devoted his life primarily to treating the sick in Haiti. But he’s caught in a constant struggle with the best way to achieve this. Hiking for seven hours through the mountains to see a single patient doesn’t scale well, but to refuse to do — to effectively say that if someone is too poor and too remote, they somehow have less right to life — goes against everything he believes in too. Similarly, to make such a trek to treat someone’s illness, but then do nothing about the conditions that make it almost certain that the illness will return… that seems pointless too. On the other hand, if you could work on, say, eradicating TB worldwide — then you could save even more of these lives. But how do you get the time work on that without having to tell people “Sorry; I can’t treat your son — I’m too busy trying to save everyone’s”.
Tracy Kidder once described his job as a writer as making true stories believable. With Farmer, he has his work cut out for him. Farmer is the unrealistic hero writ large. He spends half his time working as effectively a village doctor in Haiti, not merely treating people, but also changing the conditions that made them vulnerable in the first place — improving their housing, education, nutrition etc. The other half he spends as an attending specialist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and professor (of both medicine and medical anthropology) at Harvard Medical School. Then he spends the other half travelling the world attacking the really big versions of problems, running TB control programs in Perú, or in Russian prisons, and trying to raise the five billion dollars he thinks might eradicate it once and for all. Then, in his spare time, he speaks at conferences, writes numerous books and papers, runs a foundation with hundreds of staff, and personally deals with his hundreds of emails per day. All the while, he maintains the almost impossible balance of constant frustration at how much still needs to be done, with the satisfaction that what he’s doing makes a difference.
Kidder draws out well the constant tensions in all of this. Farmer is an inspirational story, but his talent is in doing, if not the impossible, then certainly the impractical. Most people could never come close to emulating even a deci-Farmer, and it’s unclear that it would even be sensible to try. The world can’t afford to wait for a lot more people like him to come along. As long-term collaborator Jim Yong Kim puts it “Paul is a model of what should be done. He’s not a model for how it has to be done.” Or, in Farmer’s own words, upon receiving an email from a student who believed in the cause but didn’t think he could do what Farmer did: “I didn’t say you should do what I do. I just said these things should be done!”
+10 task (#20 on list)
+15 combo (10.4 9,10,11 (Mountains) / 20.9 War Babies (1945) / 20.10 Higher Education (Stanford))
+10 not-a-novel (non-fiction)
+10 review
Task total: 45
Grand Total 420
10.6 - Short StuffNo One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O&...
I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read it ten years ago. The first few stories were weird and interesting and somewhat shocking - there's lots of strange sexual stuff in this book - but it lost its appeal about half way through. At that point, I just became annoyed with the "twee-ness" of the characters. I like odd people but these people were odd in ways that surpass an oddness I'm familiar with. Toward the end of the book I realized that I wasn't connecting with the stories in any kind of emotional way, and usually that's what signals good writing (to me).
Miranda July is absolutely a talented writer, and there are gems here - "The Swim Team" is stunningly brilliant, so creative and warm and beautiful and funny. "Mon Plaisir" is maybe the best story in this collection. "Something That Needs Nothing" is absolutely heartbreaking in its depiction of unrequited love and the urge to do unthinkable things to change yourself into someone lovable. I think perhaps if I'd tackled this in smaller chunks, I might have enjoyed it more. I do recommend it, but be prepared for vulgarity that some may find off-putting (to say the least).
+10 task
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel
Task total: 30
Grand total: 100
Post 126 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.8 Comfort ReadsUnderdog by Laurien Berenson
I gave A Pedigree to Die For 5 stars.
Review
I started this series in the middle of the series so I went back and read ..."
+5 Combo 20.6 Underrated (624 ratings)
Tony wrote: "10.5 - Dr SalkMountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Review:
In international aid and development, su..."
This is the book I chose for my Dr. Salk task as well - it's been on my "to read" list for way too long. Thanks for the great review, looking forward to reading it!
20.9 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
+20 task (born 1917)
+5 combo (10.7 - Arthur C. Clarke Award)
task total: 25
grand total: 145
10.7 - Honored AuthorsThe Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
Review:
It’s difficult to write a review of this novel and I wondered if I should even try, although I was fascinated by it from start to finish. Young Tarwater has been raised by his crazy prophet great-uncle in the woods. When the great-uncle dies, Tarwater burns down his house and sets out to find an uncle who once tried to rescue him to a ‘normal’ life and who now has a mentally disabled little boy. The great-uncle has charged Tarwater with the mission of baptising the little boy, while the boy’s father doesn’t want that to happen. There’s also a mad or satanic voice in Tarwater’s ear telling him to forget all this stuff about God and missions.
Another reviewer wrote, “When it comes to religion, I find O'Connor much like Dostoevsky in that she is able to present a series of characters and situations that to me very forcefully illustrate the non-existence of God, while I'm certain she creates them to argue the complete opposite.” I feel the same. Her religious characters seem to me so completely crazy and destructive, it’s hard to imagine their God as a force for good.
I didn't understand the title, even after reading the full Bible verse in Wikipedia: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." (Matthew 11:12). I had to look for other renderings of the verse, of which the most comprehensible ended: "the violent take it [the kingdom of heaven] by force." Maybe O'Connor thought that was a good thing? Or just inevitable?
+10 task http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery...
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1960)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 420 points
15.6 - BtW - Constant TravelerA Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929)
+15 task
+15 bonus (sixth book)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 450
10.6. Short stuff. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander +10 task
+10 not a novel
Task total: 20
Grand total:40
10.7. Honoured authors The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke +10 task
+ 5 combo (20.9 war baby, born 1917)
+ 10 not a novel
+5 oldie (1951)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 70
Claire wrote: "Tony wrote: "10.5 - Dr SalkMountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Review:
In international aid and de..."
lol Same here! Only I think I will use it for the Higher Educations task
15.2 BtW - 1921-1922 - Constant TravelerCrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
+15 pts - Task
+15 pts - Bonus
Task total - 30 pts
Grand total - 185 pts
Funny I was expecting sci-fi
Claire wrote: "10.4 - 9, 10, 11Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
I've been a fan of the Hyperbole and a Half blog ev..."
+10 Not-a-Novel
Claire wrote: "10.6 - Short StuffNo One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O&...
I think I would have enjoyed this more i..."
+10 Not-a-Novel
itpdx wrote: "10.3 Leif EricksonA Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Review: A Doll's House is a part of the western theatrical canon that I had neither read nor seen. It is also conside..."
+10 Oldies
From Post 90Tien wrote: "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 ..."
+5 Combo 10.5-on list
Rebekah wrote: "Same here! Only I think I will use it for the Higher Educations task"I came very close to using it for that Task myself, but then I found the Princeton list, which has several great options.
10.4 9, 10, 11Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Lexile 940
+10 task (Ingleside)
+5 Oldies (published 1939)
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 90
10.9 – Mythological Tanglewood Tales: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+ 10 task
+ 10 combo (10.4 – 9,10,11, 20.6 – Underrated 527 ratings)
+ 10 not-a-novel (short stories)
+ 15 oldies (1851)
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 185
10.8 - Comfort ReadThe Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany by Donald E. Westlake
Review:
This is a hotchpotch of Westlake's essays, interviews, reviews, introductions to compilations, assorted letters, and even a list he kept of possible future titles for novels (divided neatly into separate “Crime” and “Comic Crime” columns). Some are already fairly famous, or at least notorious, like his bridge-burning “Why I no longer write sci-fi” screed, or even Dortmunder's tuna casserole recipe, but others have never before appeared in print.
As Lawrence Block points out in his introduction, the thing that shines through most clearly is Westlake's all-encompassing wit. There are many hilarious moments here: the story of how, when he first started writing, he knew he needed right-justified margins, but couldn't work out how to get those on his type-writer, other than by carefully constructing lines of exactly the right length is delightful, as is the shaggy-dog story of how Jimmy The Kid (featuring “an invented novel from a pseudonymous author appearing in a real novel by the same author based on a producer’s idea to use a real-life case in which actual criminals performed a crime based on The Snatch, by Lionel White”) came to be.
The highlights for me were the pieces (including a round-table discussion between Westlake and three (of his many) pseudonyms) where he lays out the history of the crime/mystery/detective novel (including several digressions on what to even call the genre), and particularly how the changes in style reflect those of American society at large post-WWI, post-WWII, and post-Vietnam. A solid two-thirds of the book, however, will really only be of interest to Westlake aficionados.
+10 task (previous 5* to Dancing Aztecs)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
+5 combo: 10.4 9, 10, 11 (Nonfiction/Miscellany)
Task total: 35
Grand Total 485
20.6 Underrated Facing Future by Dan Kois
Review: I was intrigued when this showed up on a news feed. As I looked over the list, I saw this book with the note "The best guide to an entire region and culture (Hawai’i)". I had never heard of the artist, Iz Kamakawiwo'ole or this album, although it turns out I had heard his version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Always interested in Hawaiiana, I was delighted to find that my outstanding library system had both a copy of the book and the CD.
Listening to the CD, I was taken in by the beauty of Iz's voice. The book tells the story of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's life and the making of the Facing Future album. The author, Dan Kois, mostly writes in a good journalistic style based on interviews of many who knew Iz and were involved in making the album. It is a compelling and tragic story. It is also a window into modern Hawaiian history and music. Kois gives the background of each of the songs on the album, including the identity of the mysterious composer of one of the songs. He also explains the somewhat eclectic choice of songs included. He explores the tension between the protection and exploitation of Hawaiian culture.
I was startled by the book cover which shows the album cover. I thought that the picture of Iz had been distorted somewhere in the process of the printing the cover. No, he really was that large.
+20 Task (53 ratings published 2010)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 170
10.4 - 9, 10, 11Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Review:
Having lost his job as marketing whizz for a bagel store, Clay answers an ad in the window of a dark and dusty bookstore for a night clerk. He soon realizes there are two types of customer, and one type is distinctly odd...
I enjoyed the beginning of this and loved the setup at the bookstore. There were other things I liked, too - Neel and his breast animation company was great and almost believable - I have a niece who has interned on video game design and tells tales of similar real companies, like the one where the bosses rode their motorcyles around inside the office. But this close-to-realism didn't work for the Google-worship, for me - it was a while before I realised it was supposed to be funny (only when they were standing in line for their personalised meals), so it was mostly just annoying. (view spoiler)
Altogether, fun in parts, but patchy.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 440 points
Kate S wrote: "Claire wrote: "10.4 - 9, 10, 11Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
I've been a fan of the Hyperbole and..."
Thank you for the heads up, Kate!
10.6 - Short Stuff: Drown by Junot Díaz
I thoroughly enjoyed the well structured stories in Drown. It’s a strong, balanced debut collection and my favorite of the three books published by Junot Diaz. When I read a short story collection, I like the fact that each tale has a unique voice its own arch. The differing points of view in Drown kept each story interesting even though they were closely connected by culture and background. My favorite stories were the opening story, “Ysrael”, and “No Face” as I’m a sucker for coming of age as a theme. I guess it’s the teacher in me that relates to reading about how young people think, especially through the voices of diverse cultures and their way of living in the world.
+10 Task: O Henry winner 2009
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel (Short Stories)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 330
10.3 - Leif Erikson: The Bat by Jo Nesbø
Like so many readers, I have recently become enamored with Nordic crime thrillers, but I had resisted Jo Nesbo’s work because I’m such a purist when it comes to reading a series in order. I finally got the chance to start with book one, The Bat (now published in English), and my expectations were not as high as they will be for Nesbo’s later books. The book is engaging, but Harry Hole himself is a bit of a train wreck and I’m eager to find out how his character develops when he returns to Norway and settles down (as other reviewers imply he will). I loved the connections to aboriginal mythology, so that was a bonus of the book’s Sydney Australia setting and mix of characters. The Bat is a good solid mystery and I’m glad I read it first and hope I will develop a love of this series as Nesbo’s writing and characterizations develop in later books.
+10 Task: Norway 35 shelvings
+ 5 Combo: Mythological: Aboriginal mythology throughout, primarily "the bat":
as he encounters other indigenous characters, all of whom regale him with their myths, including that of the Narahdarn, the bat, the Aboriginal symbol of death.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/b...
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 355
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Reading with Style
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The Wreath by Sigrid Undset (1920)
15 pt. task
Grand Total: 75