Reading with Style discussion
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FA 19 Completed Tasks
15.9 PnM2 (Round 3)D1 - MPG: Science fiction
China Dream by Ma Jian
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,070
20.10 Difficult (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
I listened to the first half of this book...the Librivox version... and found it quite dull. I read the second half from a real book and it was a dramatic improvement. The Librivox reader had a nearly monotone manner of reading that failed to engage me.
This is the fifth book of Woolf's that I have read...and it is the most easiest understood...but that does not necessarily make it better. In the other novels, I found that I just had to let the words wash over me. I rationalized this approach because Woolf did not really emphasize the story...but more the texture and atmosphere.
(This novel, her first, gives a clue as to why that might be. She has one of the characters who wants to be a novelist express his desire to write a novel about silence.)
Anyway, here there is a story about a group of English passengers who set out from London....meet up with another Woolf character from a future novel (Mrs. Dalloway) in the Canary Islands.... and voyage out to an unspecified English colony in South America. There still isn't much of a story until the last quarter of the novel. Much of the action is ordinary interactions between varied characters.
I do find certain passages of Woolf to be brilliant insights...but for the most part I don't really feel a desire to read her anymore. However, I still have five more of her books on Boxall's 1001 Books list that I am working my way through.
3 stars
Task=20
Review=10
Oldie= 10 (1915)
Task Total= 40
RWS Finish=100
MEGA Finish=200
Grand Total=1505
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=33
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
20.5 Non-LinearGlory Over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Jamie Pyke, the son of a mean plantation owner and a biracial slave, had been raised by his grandmother in the plantation mansion as a white child. When he became 13 years old, his father planned to sell him into slavery. Jamie escaped to the North, but was in poor health when he reached Philadelphia. He was befriended by Henry, a former slave who cared for him until he regained his health. Henry knew that slave owners never stop looking for fugitives, and urged Jamie to pass for white. Jamie apprentices with Mr Burton, a silversmith, who eventually adopts him. Jamie became an artist, gifted as both a silversmith and a painter of the natural world, especially birds. He became involved with a white woman, but was afraid to tell her about his heritage.
Henry's young son, Pan, is kidnapped at the Philadelphia docks and is sold into slavery in North Carolina. Henry begs Jamie to help him find the boy. Jamie and Henry's trip to the South is frightening because they could also be captured by the slave catchers.
The book is narrated by multiple men and women--black, white, and biracial. Jamie has to reconcile his double identities as a white man and a black man. He used his light skin and education to save himself from a life of slavery. He realizes that many black men and women saved his life as he made the harrowing trip to the North, and that he is now in a position where he can help others escape.
"Glory Over Everything" is a fast-paced novel with well-developed, vivid characters in dangerous situations. It's a compelling story that would work well for a book discussion group.
+20 task (flashbacks to his life as a child on the plantation)
+ 5 combo 10.7 AEIO
+10 review
Task total: 35
Season total: 655
Task 20.8 Periodic Table (Owlette's Task)RB = Rubidium (atomic number 37)
The Halloween Tree (1972) by Ray Bradbury (Hardcover, 145 pages)
Lexile 800L
Review:Ray Bradbury mainly wrote fantasy stories. He also wrote several stories celebrating boys, aged 10-14, living in a 1950s small Midwestern American town. This novel does both. Our group of boys, aged 10-14, go trick-or-treating on Halloween, and have a fantastical adventure while doing so. (No females are present in the story – hence it fails the Bechdel Test). Bradbury’s prose is aimed at the middle school readers. I was surprised the Lexile was 800L! In the 1990s the story was made into a cartoon TV movie. The story is very visible, with numerous descriptions of the ghosts & mummies & witches & black cats & etc.. The Halloween Tree with hundreds of jack-o'-lanterns hanging on its branches, the haunted house, the skeletal guide all set the scene as being Halloween. The ending is upbeat. I like Bradbury’s more adult stories better than this one.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 345 + 30 = 375
15.10 PnM2 Round 2 B1The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley
+30 Task (published 2018)
Task Total: 30
Completion bonus: 100
Season Total: 985
15.1 PnM2 Round 3 D4Speaking Up by Gillian Triggs
+15 Task (Non-fiction)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1000
15.2 PnM2 Round 3 A1A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow
+15 Task (set in Alaska)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1015
15.10 PnM2. A5. Setting Africa
Statements by Athol Fugard
30 pts 15.10
100 pts Finisher bonus
Task total 130 pts
Season Total 680 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 PnM2 Round 2A3 Setting Europe
Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward
15 pts 15.1
Task total 15 pts
Season Total 695 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1
15.2 PnM2 Round 2F2 Author Name (as published) Begins With E-H
An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
15 pts 15.2
Task total 15 pts
Season Total 710 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2
15.3 PnM2 Round 2D5. Genre historical fiction, romance, adventure, western
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
15 pts 15.3
Task total 15 pts
Season Total 725 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3
15.4 PnM2 Round 2D6. Genre contemporary, realism, literary fiction, classics
The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter
15 pts 15.4
Task total 15 pts
Season Total 740 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4
15.5 PnM2 Round 2F4. Author's Name (as published) Begins With L-O
Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rølvaag
20 pts 15.5
Task total 20 pts
Season Total 760 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5
15.6 PnM2 Round 2B3. Publication Date (original publication date): 1901-1950
Bad Girl by Viña Delmar
20 pts 15.6
Task total 20 pts
Season Total 780 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6
DELETED
15.7 PnM2 Round 2. CORRECTEDE2. Title contains a number
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
20 pts 15.7
Task total 20 pts
Season Total 800 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7
15.3 PnM2 C3 - First person narrator
Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble by Ann B. Ross
+15 Task
Post total: 15
Season Total: 590
20.10 Most DifficultHeart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
+20 pts - Task
+5 Pts - Combo (20.5 - see thread post #36)
+10 pts - Oldies (1899)
Task Total - 35 pts
Season Total - 435 pts
20.2 Wolf Hall'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford
Another notch on the Western Canon...and how could I ignore a play with such a provocative title?
Similar to many of these 17th century plays, the characters are citizens of Italy...here Parma. Italians had reputations for being hot-headed and thereby prone to give rise to lots of actions and emotions that the English could not recognize in themselves. This play, however, took it to another level by centering on the issue of incest between brother and sister. I listened to the Librivox version of the play and the reader who played the brother, Giovanni, was quite creepy. There aren't really any characters to like. There's lots of blood. The church, I think, is intended to be a beacon of virtue in the play...but, I don't think that holds up...and of course, beyond the shock of the title.... is the misogyny one would reluctantly expect from this era.
2 stars
Task=20
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie= 20 (1633)
Task Total= 60
Grand Total=1565
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=34
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
20.1 InaguralThe Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
I like this quote from the Sunday Telegraph reviewer: “...she has succeeded in writing a novel which one does not feel as if it was written by a mere visitor to Russia, but is actually of Russia.” I was probably predisposed to enjoy this novel - I’ve read and enjoyed many Russian authors and generally like stories set in Russia.
On the face of it, the story is a simple one - Frank’s wife leaves him and their three children (in Moscow) to return to England. However, of course it is the telling of the story that is important. Fitzgerald makes you feel like you are right there in Moscow, as winter ends. As well, the interactions between the characters authentic (particularly at their most obscure). Well written, readable (and re-readable) and ‘Russian’. 4.5*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 combo 10.7
_________
40
Running total: 875
20.4 BoomerThe Institute by Stephen King
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.3)
+ 5 jumbo (561 pgs.)
Task total=30
Grand total=620
15.4 PnM2E3 title contains a full sentence
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca
+15 task
Season total: 145
20.2 Wolf HallTamburlaine the Great, Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe
All of Marlowe's plays are listed on the Western Canon. I think that is more for their literary historical value than their current resonance would justify.
The play begins with Tamburlaine, a mere nomadic shepherd and thief, positioning himself through cunning to steal the crown of Persia. (Despite the similarity of names, the play does not refer to the actual Mongol Emperor Tamerlane.) Tamburlaine displays a talent to convert enemies through charm, wit AND/OR treachery.
He seems to truly love Zenocrate, the daughter of the Egyptian king...and eventually marries her...while also forcing her father to become a subordinate king pledging allegiance to him. Tamburlaine is particularly brutal to the King of the Turks (and his wife) who refuse to submit.
There are of course religious complications with all these enemies...Christians and Muslims. Not really a fascinating read... but I could imagine that the play would have been unique and popular at the time it was originally staged.
Two stars.
Task=20
Review=10
combo=10 (10.7,20.8)
NaN=10
Oldie= 25 (1587)
Task Total= 75
Grand Total=1640
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=35
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
20.8 Periodic TableThe Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
The author had been with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan reporting on the war with the Taliban. When the Taliban was defeated (mostly), she came to Kabul. She made friends with a bookseller and was granted permission to live with him and his family in order to tell the story of Afghan life. In her introduction, she makes it clear this was not necessarily a typical family. Sultan Khan was most decidedly middle class in a country that had few in that economic class.
The author gives us a brief history of how Afghanistan came to its then present state. I think, rather than being a family story, this is more a snapshot of what Kabul was like in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban. The electricity might be on for only a few hours a day, those hours and the duration being unpredictable. This household had running water, sort of. There would likely be running water in the morning, but probably only for an hour or two. The challenge was to fill every receptacle while it was still available, so that it would be there when the water stopped running. Oh, and this, of course, was cold water - they had to make their own hot water.
Seierstad writes in a manner easy to read and follow. She tells us about some Islamic traditions. I found the tradition of arranged marriages and the wedding preparations and the ceremony itself very interesting. There were a lot of characters, most of whom were related. Through one character, Sultan Khan's youngest sister, we are able to see the workings of a household.
I don't know how much has changed in Kabul since this was first published in 2002. I'm glad to have read this, and although I have no immediate plans to read further, I would be interested in a follow-up at some future time.
+20 Task (AS=Arsenic)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 (although this is not a book about books, it is shelved that way enough times), 10.8)
+10 Not a Novel
Task total = 50
Season total = 230
10.3 Andre GideThe Wall by Marlen Haushofer
+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.7 A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y / 20.5 Non-Linear
+ 5 Oldies (1963)
Task Total: 25
RwS Finish: 100
Mega Finish: 200
Season Total: 1380
PnM #215.1 D4. non-fiction, biography, autobiography, memoir
Healthy Habits Suck: How to Get Off the Couch and Live a Healthy Life… Even If You Don’t Want To by Dayna Lee-Baggley
+15 Task (genre: non-fiction, biography, autobiography, memoir)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1395
20.5 Non-LinearBlood Water Paint by Joy McCullough
+20 Task: two stories and two timelines
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 1415
20.8 Periodic Table (Owlette's Task)A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
+20 Task: Thorium
+10 Oldies (1873)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1445
20.2 Wolf HallThe Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie
+20 pts -Task
+5 Pts - Jumbo (522 pages)
+10 pts - Not a novel
+10 pts - Combo (10.7, 20.5 - chapter 1 is about the discovery of the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911 by H. Bingham, chapters 2-15 is about the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire from 1526 to 1572, chapter 16 goes back to discovery in 1911 and the years immediately after during clearing and celebration of discovery, chapter 17 is about the discovery of the last stronghold of the Incas, called Vilcabamba by Savoy and later the Lees in 1970’s and onwards to modern days) I picked this book for the task in preparation for a trip to Peru next month. I love the Incan names of places and people! Titu Cusi, Quisquis,Cuzco, Lake Titicaca, Tumibamba, Tupac Hualpa.
Task total - 45 pts
Season Total - 480 pts
20.2 Wolf HallTamburlaine the Great Part II by Christopher Marlowe
This second part of Tamburlaine (Part I reviewed above in post 580) is not very compelling. As I indicated, I could see how Part I was popular because of its brutal depiction of a tyrant. But the sequel doesn't work at all for me. The language seems so much more hyperbolic and we already got the point in Part I. (But I am not a good judge of popular culture...I hate all things Star Wars and Star Trek...and yet all the sequels rake in millions.)
This second part begins about 20 years after the end of Part I. Tamburlaine has three sons he grooms as his warrior heirs. One son does not lean in that direction...and enrages Tamburlaine...and you can imagine what that means. The emperor's wife also dies ...but little time is spent on this. The reader is presented with more examples of Tamburlaine's savagery as he continues his untamed desire to increase the size of his empire.... Babylon is next on the menu.
One piece of trivia I found interesting...while Tamburlaine seems to be dying...he contemplates the canal he intended to build to link India to Europe. Marlowe wrote this over 200 years before the construction of the Suez Canal. Had it been seriously discussed so many years beforehand?
Task=20
Review=10
combo=10 (10.7,20.8)
NaN=10
Oldie= 25 (1590)
Task Total= 75
Grand Total=1715
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=36
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.2 (4x)(75); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
Task 10.9 Science! (Mary's Task)Read a book classified as science or mathematics by any library.
Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature (2004) by Tim Flannery (Hardcover, 258 pages) [599.222]
Review:Tim Flannery wrote this book for the reader who paid attention in High School Biology class but then never took another science class. He explains kangaroos – how and what they eat, how they reproduce, the challenges they faced over the centuries, including modern-day challenges posed by the human habitation of Australia. In between the mini-lectures, Tim Flannery includes personal anecdotes of travelling throughout Australia, of searching for fossils in unlikely places, and other personal matters.
So we’ll have a chapter with sentences like this: (p. 67: The delayed development of the embryo implies one further feature of the environment that shaped the ancestral kangaroo….), followed by a chapter with sentences like this: (p. 27: After passing South Australia’s Coorong on that motorcycle journey in 1975, stinkers and their chocolate females were the only kangaroos I saw.) I appreciated the personal reminisces as much as the information on marsupial reproduction.
Recommended for non-scientists interested in reading about the scientific method, Australia, and kangaroos.
+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.4 born January 28, 1956)
+10 Not-a-Novel: non-fiction
+10 Review
Task 10 + 05 + 10 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 375 + 35 = 410
15.10 A4 -Setting-ChinaThe Crazed by Ha Jin
+30 pts - Task
+100 pts - Completion Bonus
Task Total 130 pts
Season Total - 510 pts
20.2 PnM2 F.6 Author's Name T-Z
Tracy Chevalier A Single Thread
+20 pt Task
Task Total = 20 pts
Season Total = 205 pts
20.2 Wolf HallVolpone by Ben Jonson
I listened to the Librivox version of this play and was underwhelmed. I would gladly go to a performance because the farcical actions in the play could surely provide many belly laughs when performed by good actors. As a mere reading however, the play is flat.
The action centers around the title character, Volpone, who is a greedy trickster. He and his servant take advantage of other bad actors who think Volpone is dying...and that they might become the inheritors if they only provide gifts to him now. In one case, the gift is a wife...after the would-be inheritor is assured that Volpone is so far gone that he could never act on his lust. Volpone is too clever by half however...and events eventually get more complicated...and karma has its day with all the evil-doers.
Task=20
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie= 25 (1606)
Task Total= 65
Grand Total=1780
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=37
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.2 (4x)(75); 20.2(5x)(65); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
20.6 Monster ReduxAkata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
This is a YA book with a 590 lexile so no style points for a review, but it was an excellent. An outcast-discovering-they-have-magic-and-learning-and-a-connection-to-the-bad-guy story that is delightfully shaped by a current day African culture. Sunny and her group were believable and enjoyable.
Task total: 20
Grand total: 1525
20.2 Wolf HallTartuffe by Molière
I have seen this play on the stage at least twice many years ago...and I think I read the play decades ago as well. (I remember one rowdy production included a male character wearing and having difficulty wearing ridiculously high high-heels.) And it is still funny. As I read it this time it resonated with current events in the United States. I thought under the right direction it could be hilarious if Alec Baldwin (in his Saturday Night Live persona) played Tartuffe. Characters such as KellyAnne Conway and Sarah Huckabee could play cameo parts as sycophants. Tartuffe is a Rasputin-like character who has irrationally won the devotion of Orgon and his mother. Until the end, all the evidence in the world as to Tartuffe's treachery will not be believed.
At the time it was published, 1664, the play was a hit...but also shocking to the powers that be. The Catholic Church threatened to ex-communicate anyone who watched, produced or had anything to do with the play.
Five Stars.
Task=20
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie= 20 (1664)
Task Total= 60
Grand Total=1840
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=38
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.2 (4x)(75); 20.2(5x)(65); 20.2 (6x)(60); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
15.10 PnM2 (Round 3)F6 - author's name begins with T for Toshikazu
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
+30 Task
+100 Completion
Post Total: 130
Season Total: 1,200
20.8 Periodic TableGd - Gadolinium element #64
Torn from the Sun by Gregory Donovan
+20 task
+10 not-a-novel (poetry)
+5 combo (10.7 e o y a)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 1560
20.8 Periodic TableSr - Strontium element 38
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson
I have all the Callahan books (um - I just found out I missed the 10th! how did that happen. must. buy. now.) and it's been at least a decade since I've read them, so they are part of my rereading campaign - why am I keeping these things again? It didn't take me long to remember - I have to keep these sci-fi-like stories that are explicitly, blatantly, and unashamedly about the power of caring - not romantic or familial love, but listening and caring as a part of human existence. And hopeful. They are hopeful and heartwarming without being schmoopy.
Callahan's is definitely a man's place and a man's view from a particular demographic, but without being a pain or painful, which was refreshing. I found it interesting that in the seventies Robinson explicitly had his narrator acknowledge that this was the case and told a story in relation to it. (I had never noticed that the series started in the seventies before!) This first book is a collection of short stories published previously in magazine form and they connect well without repeating intros or key facts too much.
+20 task
+10 not-a-novel
+10 combo (20.4 b1948, 10.8)
+10 review
+5 age (pub 1977)
Task total: 55
Grand total: 1615
20.2 Wolf HallMacbeth by William Shakespeare
pub 1606
I knew the story, of course. I'd played Lady Macbeth in an adapted version in 6th grade. But I don't believe I ever read it or saw an unabridged performance because I don't remember the dialog egging on Banquo's killers, or the scene where Malcolm tests MacDuff, among others. That last one was weird, as I'm hearing Malcolm proclaim how horrid he is and getting very confused.... until he turns it around. I had to read it twice before I really understood he was trying to find out if MacDuff had the country's best interests in mind.
I read the play in plain text and then went and read it in this version - Manga Classics: Macbeth - which has the complete full text of the play as well. The illustrations helped a great deal in understanding the characters and the intended actions between what they speak. I completely missed the implications of some of the fighting and staging when I was supposed to keep it in my head from mostly dialogue. In particular Macbeth seeing Banquo's ghost didn't feel so intense - either unillustrated or when I was 12. Although it probably wasn't played so dramatically either, with him coming completely unhinged in front of his thanes.
+20 task
+25 age (pub 1606)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
Task total: 65
Grand total: 1680
20.4 Boomer. CORRECTEDBlack Skies by Arnaldur Indriðason
20 pts 20.4 Boomer
5 pts. 20.5 Nonlinear
10 pts Review
Task total 35 pts
Season Total 835 pts
Another Icelandic mystery that draws you in - as always with Arnaldur novels, the ending is a twist that you don’t see coming. Arnaldur uses a recurring nonlinear element to highlight an aspect of the plot which is not directly related to the main story.
This book focusses on detective Sigurdur Oli, a collegue of Erlendur who is the primary detective in the other books in the series. While aspects of the two detectives’s personality differ, they are generally interchangeable within the plot line. But the untangling of the plot is the primary attraction of the series.
10.1 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.7
20.4 20.5 20.8
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7
Post 583 Karen Michele wrote: "RwS Finish: 100
Mega Finish: 200"
Congratulations! Well done!
10.8 Double OWhat Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained by Robert L. Wolke
The Einstein part has nothing to do with anything. It is just a way to say this book is about the science behind kitchen stuff (sadly makes it 641, so not a combo). The book was readable and told in a question/answer, breezy sitting and chatting with you format and style. I learned some new things, although not as much as I wanted to. I still want some more depth, but the content level was right for the writing style and likely audience. It is very down to earth on both science skill level and cooking skill level. There were a couple recipes per chapter but they were more for illustration and not really the point.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 not a novel
Task total: 30
Grand total: 1710
15.8 PickNMix2D6 - Literary Fiction
Embers by Sándor Márai
+20 Task - a 5-star read for me, by the way
Season total = 250
20.2 Wolf HallTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare
This is a second reading of this play for me. I have also been fortunate to see at least two excellent productions of the play at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Shakespeare once again uses the devices of disguises and mistaken identity for comic effect.
In Twelfth Night, twin brother and sister are separated in a shipwreck off the coast of Illyria (roughly present-day Croatia). Both believe the other drowned... and both eventually get involved in a love quadrangle...causing much confusion and merriment while the sister, Viola, is disguised as a boy who is a servant of the Count. Much of the amusement comes at the expense of the clownish characters...especially Malvolio who is tricked into ridiculous situations. Of course, after all is discovered, most everybody lives happily ever after. A fun read. 4 stars.
Task=20
Review=10
NaN=10
Combo= 5 (20.9)- I'll claim it but I'm not sure if the premise of the story starting with a shipwreck is sufficient.
Oldie= 25 (1601)
Task Total= 70
Grand Total=1910
Tasks Completed: 30
Books read=39
✔10.1 (40); 10.2(30); 10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.6 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (35); 10.9 (40); 10.10 (35)
✔15.1(E3)(15); 15.2(B2)(15); 15.3(F6)(15); 15.4(D4)(15); 15.5(F2)(20); 15.6(C4)(20); 15.7(D6)(20); 15.8 (E5)(20); 15.9(C3)(30); 15.10 (B1)(130)
✔20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.2 (2x)(55); 20.2(3x)(60); 20.2 (4x)(75); 20.2(5x)(65); 20.2 (6x)(60); 20.2 (7x)(70); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.4(2x)(35); 20.5 (45); 20.6 (70); 20.7 (35);20.7(2x)(30); 20.8 (45); 20.9 (40); 20.10 (340)
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Reading with Style
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+30 task
Task total =30
Grand total = 170