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FA 19 Completed Tasks
From Post 258Coralie wrote: "20.3 Author
Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet: An Autobiography by Charles Kingsley
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.7 AEIY)
+15 Oldies (published 1850)
Task Total: 40
Season Tota..."
+10 Not a Novel
From Post 264Connie wrote: "20.8 Periodic Table
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden
"Escape from Camp 14" is a disturbin..."
+5 Combo 20.4
15.6 PnME2 - Number in title
Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life by Barbara Stanny
Task total:20
Grand total: 715
10.4 Replay - Summer Shorts 10.7 Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1920) 48 pages, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1922) 64 pages by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I have a disappointing history with F. Scott Fitzgerald . I have tried multiple times to read The Great Gatsby and have failed. The girls in the book sit around bored with tennis, bored with dinner, and ignore the child upstairs. About then I put down the book for something else.
What a delight to read these two short stories. I love Mr. Fitzgerald's writing. Both stories were funny and original. In particular The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
was filled with one ridiculous episode after another. Both short stories also had a sweetness to them as they poked fun at the characters. I read that F. Scott Fitzgerald earned his fame and reputation as a writer more from his short stories than from his novels. I can understand why.
+10 task
+5 Combo 10,7 vowels in author's name
+10 not a novel
+10 Oldie
+10 review
45 task total
125 Season total
15.6 PnM2 (Round 2)F3 - author's name begins with K
Walking to the Moon by Kate Cole-Adams
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 590
20.3 AuthorQuichotte by Salman Rushdie
I’m not one to jump on a new book’s bandwagon, but the description of this novel sounded fun and right up my alley. Luckily, I judged correctly.
Goodness, this was good. There are so many threads that Rushdie has to handle within the Quichotte story and the author’s (Brother) story, and he does it brilliantly. This is non-linear, meta-meta-fiction. Yes, that isn’t a typo. Brother is writing Quichotte’s story and Rushdie is writing - well obviously, the whole thing, but in this context – Brother’s story and we are aware of all of that. He’s not as obtrusive as Coetzee was in Slow Man, thankfully.
I haven’t read Don Quixote, so I can’t comment on his faithfulness to the original. It certainly is a gimlet eyed satire (or even, gut punch to) contemporary culture. I always find it amazing when I read fiction that is so up to date with it’s commentary; I wonder how it got from idea, to writing, to editing, to publishing, to my hands so quickly.
Overall, this book is kind of a wild ride, yet very readable. You have to be comfortable with non-linear, meta-fiction, magic realism, and scathing indictments of human endeavours. Although this is leavened with humor and the deeply empathetic way Rushdie writes about his character’s relationships. 5*
20 task
10 review
25 combo 10.7, 20.1, 20.4, 20.5, 20.8
______
55
Running total: 505
Kate S wrote: "From Post 258Coralie wrote: "20.3 Author
Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet: An Autobiography by Charles Kingsley
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.7 AEIY)
+15 Oldies (published 18..."
This really is a novel. It might say "an autobiography" but it is a fictional one.
20.7 Spec FicDeath's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past #3) by Liu Cixin
34 users
+20 Task
+10 Combo (20.4 - 1963; 20.8 - CL for Chlorine)
+5 Jumbo (604 pages)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 625
Coralie wrote: "This really is a novel. It might say "an autobiography" but it is a fictional one."Thank you. We'll fix that.
10.1 Sub-SandwichThe House of the Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey
Tien read this for 15.3 in July
A satisfying fantasy story with a bit of piracy, a bit of magic, and a bit of romance. Like most of Lackey's work, it is a slow climb in tension, with perhaps more setup than is really needed, before you reach heights of dramatic action at the end. As usual, I enjoyed the early meanders also, instead of tiring of them. I liked the contained nature of this particular story and the interactions between the characters, although pretty much everyone is sensible with straightforward motivations. Clarice is a character I was happy to root for. There are a couple hard parts, particularly when a child dies, but Lackey is never explicit about them.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (20.4 b1950)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 740
20. 8 Periodic TableOutliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Well, I found this all super interesting and really enjoyed it. Gladwell is falling under some criticism in some of the other reviews of the book but as a lay-person, I thought his research was extensive and his arguments concise and clear. Is it a bit simplistic? Sure, but it's accessible. Don't read it as an academic text but do read it if you are intrigued about success and talent and why things happen to certain people. 10 000 hours is magic and I've used that throughout my career thus far.
I read an interesting comment about sexism and yes this book is lacking in female "stars".
As I read further into other reviews, some people say his science is flimsy and his arguments are a stretch.
Could be true, don't know if this book is for everyone. But I can say I enjoyed listening to it and that it planted some valuable thoughts seeds and made me consider things in a different way.
+20 Task MG
+5 Combo 20.4 1963
+5 Combo 20.5 approved in help thread
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
Task Total: 50 pts
Grand Total: 85 pts
10.4 ReplayThe Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor
Qualifying for the following task:
20.8 Revisit a Friend (Lynn's Task)
Find an author that you read for the first time in the last year (June 1, 2018 - May 31, 2019). Read an additional book by that author. You may not use this task for combos.
I read The Chalk Man last year and had intended to read this book last season and didn't get to it.
+10 Task
+5 Combo 20. 5 Non-Linear, flashbacks
Task Total: 15 pts
Grand Total: 100 pts
15.7 PnM2 (Round 2)C6 - Multiple POV
The Trafficked (Detective Johnny Mann #2) by Lee Weeks
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 645
20.8 Periodic TableI'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
IR - Iridium
Too much thinking, not enough doing.
This amateurish ramble made me wonder very early on if the author was an incel. (view spoiler) The female narrator is a nameless cipher. Despite the majority of the novel being her internal monologue, she rarely has a thought that is not centered on a man. Those cycle between how smart and attractive Jake is, and a mysterious Caller. To be fair, at least there was no misogyny. Just lots and lots of vagueness and repetitive philosophical musings. This reminded me of something I wrote in 7th grade, when I realized that while I might have some good plot ideas, I was crap at writing people.
I get what this was going for, and if you like creepiness without payoff and narrative without character, enjoy!
+20 task
+ 5 non-linear (the book alternates the main-character narration with other narrators talking about the ending)
+10 review
Task total = 35
Season total = 195
15.9 Pick N Mix 2F3 Authors Name I - K
Fatal Error by J.A. Jance
Task total 30 pts
Season Total 455 pts
10.1 10.3 10.4 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
15.8 PnM2 (Round 2)C1 - 60+ yo narrator
The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 665
10.7 AEIOU, sometimes YI'll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos
"You're his blue sky. When everything else is darkness. But is he yours?"
"No one should live with someone who scares her."
Clare Hobbes is having prenuptial jitters, trying to list the good qualities belonging to her possessive fiance. A talk with an elderly woman, Edith, gives her the courage to break off her engagement.
A few weeks later, Edith's lawyer tells Clare that she has inherited Edith's home--Blue Sky House--near a Delaware bay. Through photographs and hidden ledgers, Clare learns about the people Edith has loved and her courage in helping others. Clare enlists the help of her best friend--and former boyfriend--Dev to find out more about Edith's life. Clare also discovers more about herself in the process.
The book alternates between chapters involving Clare in the present day, and Edith in the 1950s. This is a story about relationships between family, friends, lovers, and strangers in need of help. I cared about the outcomes of the characters in the book, including the ones with problems.
+10 task
+ 5 combo 20.5 Non-linear
+10 review
Task total: 25
Season total: 360
15.1 PnM2 Round 2 A6The Year of the Farmer by Rosalie Ham
+15 Task (set in Australia)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 485
10.1 Sub-SandwichPlanet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin (1966) 126 pages.
10 Task
10 Combo 10.7 A,E,I,O,U, and sometimes Y, 20.7 Speculative Fiction
5 Oldie
10 review
Task = 35 points
160 Season Total
This book is #2 in the Hainish Cycle. It is another of Ursula le Guin's early works. This Science Fiction book from the 1960s reads very much like other Science Fiction from the Golden Age, yet with Le Guin's personal emphasis. There is the question of who or what is human. As usual she brings together beings who are alien to each other and they find common ground. There are scenes of what feels like obligatory fighting - later Le Guin drops this battle scene scenario from her books.
I enjoyed the book. It is interesting to me to read the early works of an author when I am familiar with later works. During the summer I read Hainish Cycle #1 Rocannon's World I read her "masterpieces" years ago and it is fun to read these. I gave it 4 stars.
20.1 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
This was not the harrowing masterpiece that The Handmaid’s Tale was, praise be. I could not have handled that. I almost did not pick this up, and even after I did I had anxiety dreams for the first 2 of the 3 nights it took me to read this. However, this is a much lighter book than THT. I mean, it’s not a rollicking adventure, but this one doesn’t put you through the wringer. As much.
We’re still in Gilead, after all. Horrible things happen, but the worst happens to supporting characters, in passing. The 3 POVs have enough power, status, or distance to be safe from what Offred endured.
Aunt Lydia in THT was a monster. Here, she is nuanced. She’s frightening here not because she’s a boogeyman but because she’s relatable. She’s a survivor. This is not to say she’s not a villain (view spoiler), but she’s interesting.
Atwood is a master storyteller, and she also knows what is needed. And right now, that is some hope.
+20 task
+15 combo (10.3, 20.5, 20.7)
+10 review
Task total = 45
Season total = 240
20.10 DifficultThe Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
#41 on list
Reading this book felt like looking at Picasso's Nude Descending a Staircase. I could look at it at any given moment and have a few paragraphs in a row make sense, but if I let my eyes or attention expand, things started looking really very surreal and confusing. It didn't feel difficult to read, just dense with imagery, as long as I didn't think too hard about what it all meant. I am quite sure you could get multiple doctoral theses aout of this one.
In another way it was like seeing the movie National Treasure or reading Da Vinci Code as a slice of the middle, an emotional piece where action movies can't dwell, when the protagonist is confused and searching and seeing meaning everywhere but is not entirely sure if there is really significance. You learn a little in the book, but it ends on questions, not solutions.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 age (pub 1966)
+5 combo (20.5)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 800
15.3 PnM2, D2 The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
+15 Task ("Mystery" and "Thriller" are both on homepage genre)
Task total: 15
Season total: 700
10.3 Andre GideThe Unseen by Katherine Webb
In 1911 Cat Morley, a girl with a past, is taken in as a servant in the household of a country vicar and his young and naive wife. One hundred years later, a journalist investigates the story of an unidentified World War I soldier whose remains have been found along with two carefully sealed letters from the vicar's wife.
I enjoyed the beginning and end of this, but I found the middle terribly slow. It was hard not to skip. I think I would have preferred it without the 2011 story, which just seemed to draw things out even more, without adding anything.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (20.5 switches between 1911 and 2011)
Post total: 25
Season Total: 365
20.5 Non-LinearThe Starlet and the Spy by Ji-min Lee
It's 1954 in Seoul and Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator for the Americans, is barely surviving emotionally. We slowly find out about a love triangle, and the Korean War through flashbacks and letters. Alice is still suffering from guilt and despair.
Alice is assigned to be the translator when Marilyn Monroe visits Korea on a USO tour to entertain the troops. Although Marilyn plays a minor role in this book, there is a connection between the two troubled women.
This was a heartbreaking portrait of Korean citizens used as pawns by various political groups. However, I did not feel a strong emotional connection to any of the characters. This may be due to the short length of the book, and because so much important information was withheld until a revealing letter near the end of the story.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 390
10.5 BannedAgamemnon by Aeschylus
10 pts 10.5 Banned (see discussion thread)
5 pts 10.7 AEIOU and Y
10 pts Review
25 pts Oldies.
10 Not a Novel
One of the classical Greek plays, I found it hard to follow. The play is written in verse and most of the action seems to be reported rather than acted on stage. The plot itself is strong but the obstacles of language and unfamiliarity make it a challenge.
I found it interesting that this would have been banned. The plot elements of overthrow of a king could be considered threatening in some political climates as a incitement to politically motivated action against a government. However, that seems like setting up a scapegoat for actions that likely would have still occured.
Task total 60 pts
Season Total 515 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
20.7 Spec Fic The Stand by Stephen King
I have been working on this book for a looooong time, encompassing several rounds of the common cold, which is horrifying while reading this book! It was quite an adventure. The book tells the story of a superflu that wipes out 99% of the population, leaving only a handful of survivors, who coalesce into basically two camps, good and evil. There are psychic/spiritual elements, fantastical happenings, angels and demons, the works. But there are also threads of the story that contemplate how society might put itself together after such an event -- would we join up? Would it be every man for himself? Would we recreate all our old systems, for better and worse? I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot, then the next chunk, as survivors are realizing what's happening and starting to journey, felt slow to me. About halfway through, the whole thing picked up and it felt like classic Stephen King page-turning. Overall, a good read for sure, though definitely an investment of time (and not a great read for a sick day!).
+20 task (shelved by 111 users)
+15 combo (10.3, 20.4 - born 1947, 20.5 - multiple POV, overlapping and reverse time, flashbacks)
+10 review
+5 oldies (pub 1978)
+25 jumbo (1153 pages)
Task Total: 75
Season Total: 145
20.4 BoomerWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
This book takes place in the 1960s and 70's in North Carolina's marshlands. The main character is the very young Kya.... who is abandoned one by one by everyone in her family. She struggles to survive in the marshlands before she is even 10 years old...by herself.... ditching school after one day. She has few other relationships with people...and the people usually fail her...driving her to seek more isolation. I appreciated the education I gained about how folks, at least some folks, lived in these environs.
At times I felt I had to suspend belief a bit too much as Kya became a published author about flora and fauna in the marsh. However, the last third of the book shifts to a trial with the right amount of tension and all the loose ends wrapped up neatly. Along the way...the reader also learns some also interesting things about biology. Pay attention to those tricky tricky fireflies.
A solid 3 stars.
Task=20
Review=10
Combo = 20 (10.1; 10.7; 20.3; 20.5)
Task Total= 50
Grand Total=505
Tasks Completed: 16
10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (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)
20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.7 (35); 20.8 (45)
From Post 289Deedee wrote: "Task 20.5 Non-Linear
Read a book with a non-linear narrative.
Lost Children Archive (2019) by Valeria Luiselli (Hardcover, 385 pages)
+20 Task
+15 Combo (#10.7(a..."
While this does not work for 20.8 (initials in reverse order), it does work for 20.1. No change in points.
10.7 A, E, I, O, U, sometimes YBarfly by Charles Bukowski
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel (screenplay)
+5 oldies (1983)
Task total=25
Grand total=375
10.1 Sub-SandwichThe Power by Naomi Alderman
This book is filled with war and politics and violence and inequality between the sexes and religion used to support an imbalanced status quo--which sounds pretty much like the world at large today--but instead of the patriarchy being at the heart of it, it's the matriarchy. Women being the power behind the violence, being the movers and shakers in politics (and the ones with their finger on the metaphoric button), having the dominance and the taste for cruelty. It was hard to read at times, but even harder to put down.
I read somewhere that this was "our era's The Handmaid's Tale" and that is not too far off the mark.
In the end, what I took away from it was: humanity (both male and female)+unmitigated power=disaster.
I loved it (maybe that's because I'm a huge sucker for spec fic, but the writing was fantastic and the premise, brilliant).
+10 Task
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.3, 10.7--A,O,I,E--20.5, 20.7--shelved as "speculative fiction" by 216 readers, 20.8--Na=Sodium)
Task total: 45
Season total: 745
10.4 ReplayReplaying 10.3 Summer 2017 (Read any book by an author whose name as published contains no letter I)
DirtyBiology. La grande aventure du sexe by Léo Grasset
+10 Task
(no combo as it is a graphic novel)
Task total = 10
Points total = 10
15.3 PnM2 Round 2 F5In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
+15 Task (name begins S)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 500
10.5 BannedBridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Another tick off the 1000 Children's Book You Should Read Before You Grow Up List. A new student, Leslie and her family moves near to Jess Aarons and his family in rural North Carolina. Jess has dreams of being the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Unfortunately, Leslie easily outruns him. Despite this, the pair become quick friends....even though Leslie, a tomboy, is shunned by almost every one else. The two friends create their own fantasy world that they rule...Terabithia. They have their own shack (palace) in the woods. A tragedy occurs...which I can see might have been the reason for this book having been banned or censored. It might be too difficult for 5th graders to take. I enjoyed the style and structure of the short novel...and all the characters are depicted credibly. Three stars.
Task=10
Review=10
Combo = 5 (10.7)
Oldie =5 (1977)
Task Total= 30
Grand Total=535
Tasks Completed: 17
10.3 (35); 10.4 (35); 10.5 (30); 10.7 (35); 10.8 (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)
20.1 (35); 20.2 (65); 20.3 (35); 20.4 (50); 20.7 (35); 20.8 (45)
20.3 AuthorDon't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion by Neil Gaiman
I was looking for readily accessible books about authors and was taken aback that this one was written by Neil Gaiman. Who apparently had been the right person once upon a time before he published pretty much everything I know him for (Sandman, Stardust, American Gods, Good Omens....)
The book itself was an interesting biography of Douglas in regards to his writing, or attempts to write, or delays in writing, across various media. It included clips of voices from other authors. It included a light tone and jokes that Adams would have appreciated, provided you believe the depiction, which there is no reason not to. I had no idea there was so much to the saga of the not-a-trilogy.
+20 task
+10 not a novel
+10 review
+5 age (pub 1987)
+10 combo (20.4 born 1960, 20.5)
Task total: 55
Grand total: 855
10.7 A,E,I,O,U and sometimes YThe Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (1961) 144 pages, by Ernest Hemingway
10 points task
5 Oldie
10 points not a novel
10 points review
35 points task
195 Season total
I really liked this short story collection. I read it because of the short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" which I thought was amazing. The last time I read Hemingway I was in college and about 20 years old. He writes of war, old age, regret, and love that is sometimes good and sometimes waning. Like any short story collection there were some that I liked more than others. As a young person, Hemingway was not at all to my tastes. Now that I am older I think he is a genius. His goal was to write truth, and the things he wrote feel like truth to me now. They are sometimes inspiring and sometimes hard to look at.
10.9 ScienceHeadstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World by Rachel Swaby
509.252
This book is structured on the idea that you could read one profile a week for a year, each being only 3-5 pages long. I was impressed by the variety of accomplishments that Swaby presented. Some women had won Nobel prizes (more than I had thought) but some had done significant, nearly hidden things. Some were well known in their fields at the time and others had one important work to their name. There was a great deal of working for free involved.
The profiles did a good job of capturing both biographical details and scientific significance, even with not knowing the field ahead of time) in a limited space. The writing was clear and interesting.
+10 task
+10 not a novel
+10 review
Task total: 30
RwS Finish: 100
Grand total: 980
15.6 PnM2A5 Set in Africa
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
+20 Task -- set in Cairo, Egypt
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 300
15.7 PnM2B1 Publication Date 2001 or later
Make The Play by Jamie Wesley
+20 Task -- published 2017
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 320
15.8 PnM2E3 Title consists of a full sentence
Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 340
10.7 - A, E, I, O, U Sometimes YYesterday's Tears by Jane O'Brien
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 50
20.4 - BoomerThe Finishing School by Michele Martinez
+20 task (1962)
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 85
20.3 AuthorJane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron
The titular "Jane" is Jane Austen and the "unpleasantness" is a double murder that gets pinned on her friend, Isobel, and her friend's amour. Jane becomes a sleuth in an attempt to exonerate Isobel and in the process encounters ghosts and shady characters and several people who eventually find their way into her books.
The conceit of this book is that someone (modern day) found a treasure trove of Jane's diaries and are now publishing the exploits found therein, so it is written in that mix of neoclassicism and romanticism that is so distinctly hers...well, attempted to write this way, at least. It felt overdone at times and entirely abandoned at others, which was distracting.
While I found this to be an interesting premise, I think this is the only one of the series (thirteen of these books?!) that I will be reading.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.7: E, A, I, O; 20.4: b. 1963; 20.8: Sb=Antimony)
Task total: 45
Season total: 790
And congrats, Beth! Nice RwS finish!!
10.4 ReplayUsing Task 10.7 Summer Shorts - Read a book of short works (stories, essays, poems, plays etc) where no single work in the book is more than 100 pages OR read two or more short (<100 pages each) works that collectively total 100+ pages.
Heartstones by Ruth Rendell (85 pgs.)
In the Time of His Prosperity by Barbara Vine (32 pgs.)
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel
Task total=20
Grand total=395
Task 10.1 Sub-SandwichRead a book that one of our members read for a sub-challenge within the last year (Fall 2018-Summer 2019).
Double Star (1956) by Robert A. Heinlein (Paperback, 224 pages)
Hugo Award for Best Novel (1956)
Locus Award Nominee for All-Time Best SF Novel (1987)
Review: I last read Robert A. Heinlein when I was a young adult, late 1970s-early 1980s. I started and did-not-finish two of his novels: Friday (a young adult female ENJOYS being raped); and Time Enough for Love (PRAISES father-daughter incest). I had also read, as a teenager, Stranger in a Strange Land, and found it confusing. I decided that I’d rather re-read Dune or my favorite Russian novel War and Peace than read any more of Robert A. Heinlein. And yet, I’m a big fan of science fiction / fantasy, and many people who are fans of science fiction / fantasy praise Robert A. Heinlein’s work. So I’m thinking, maybe his earlier stories are good, before he decided to get into male fantasies about compliant females. Double Star won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1956, and it was short, and my local library had a copy AND it fits #10.1 for Reading With Style this season, so I decided to give it a try. If offensive, I can always ‘did-not-finish’ it and return it to the library.
The novel does not pass the Bechtel test (but then, almost no 1950s science fiction does). The women are all younger than the men, all very emotional but fundamentally moral actors, and all chaste (again, 1950s science fiction standard). Getting past the ‘female’ issue, the story was entertaining. Our first-person narrator is a middle-aged, unemployed male actor who is hired to impersonate an important politician who had been kidnapped. The events were plausible. The characters were 1950s standard (the loyal (female) secretary – the (male) politicians – the (male) scientists). And – interplanetary space travel – to Mars and other locales. There were a handful of unintentionally humorous passages (slide rulers!). Overall, I’d recommend this for readers of science fiction who can overlook the 1950s sexism.
I will read more of Robert A. Heinlein’s stories from the 1950s and early 1960s – but not his later ones.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+05 Combo (#10.7 Vowels: A, E, I, O)
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1944-1994)
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 05 + 05 = 30
Grand Total: 240 + 30 = 270
Kate S wrote: "From Post 289Deedee wrote: "Task 20.5 Non-Linear
Read a book with a non-linear narrative.
Lost Children Archive (2019) by Valeria Luiselli (Hardcover, 385 pages)..."
Kate S wrote: "From Post 289
Deedee wrote: "Task 20.5 Non-Linear
Read a book with a non-linear narrative.
Lost Children Archive (2019) by Valeria Luiselli (Hardcover, 385 pages)...
While this does not work for 20.8 (initials in reverse order), it does work for 20.1. No change in points.
"
A touch of dyslexia -- sorry about that
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Anika wrote: "10.4 Replay (of 20.1 Iris Murdoch, read a book published during Iris Murdoch's lifetime, 1919-1999)
Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by [author:Svetl..."
+5 Oldies