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Winter 14/15 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 14/15
20.1 - RwS Anniversary!:Jezebel by Irène Némirovsky
Review: Continuing my infatuation with Nemirovsky! This one has an interesting structure. The first quarter is set in a courtroom, where Gladys Eisenach is on trial for the murder of her young lover. A procession of witnesses take the stand - her maid, another of her lovers, a relative, her chauffeur, among others. We hear facts about the night of the murder, and can draw our own conclusions about some of the relationships between Gladys and the witnesses.
The remainder of the book goes back over Gladys's life story, from childhood, through adolescence, her marriage, up to the night of the crime. Although the facts of the crime have been explained earlier, all was not as it seemed....although it wasn't difficult to guess what was really going on well before the end of the book.
Gladys's defining feature is her obsession with her age, her looks, and the need to be adored by men....ALL men. These are her only concerns in life, and she spends much of the book railing against the passage of time. And in the end, this obsession is the cause of her downfall.
At many points of the book, you just want to slap her - she is healthy, wealthy and not bad-looking, but she just whines non-stop. However, there are points where it is possible to feel a small amount of sympathy for her, and even sadness that she just couldn't find a way to be happy with life.
Another good one from Irene!
+20 task
+10 combo (20.2 - Persephone, 20.8 - Exiles and Emigrants)
+10 review
+10 non-Western
+10 oldies (first published 1936)
Task total: 60
Grand Total: 320
Kate S wrote: "No big deal, but Respect Elders is 20.9 not 20.8. Just want to make sure the numbering on your spreadsheet (or data collection system) matches mine. :) "Oh yes, thank you! Just a typo when I posted (then copied and pasted again). I do have it as 20.9 on my spreadsheet :)
15.2 A to ZG - V
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
+15 task
Grand total 50
20.4 1001 booksWittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson
Narrated by the last person left alive, a woman in her late forties, this book is truly unusual. In short repetitive statements, riddled with inaccuracies and constant interjections, the narrator Kate types her thoughts as they come to her. In a world without even cats (or seagulls) for companionship, she writes to give her experiences and thoughts a reality outside her own head. As she writes she draws on her memories of literature, music, and the visual arts and struggles with her own personal loss as well. Her thoughts are meandering and cyclical, and often very funny, but always in the background is the very real drama of life in complete solitude. The book raises a lot of questions that very much intrigue me, such as: what happens to our accumulated cultural products when we can only draw on our own faulty memories of them? And how can you be sure of what is real, when there is no one there to confirm or help shape reality? I enjoyed the book as I read it, but find I like it even more after I finished. A very good book.
20 pt. task
+10 review
+5 combo (20.9)
+5 oldies
task total:40
Grand Total:130
10.8 Two for One Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
+10 task
+10 combo (10.4 - England, 20.8 exile/emmigrant)
+10 oldies (both pub. 1893)
Task total 30
Grand total 80
20.5 Mystery WomenThe Case Is Closed by Patricia Wentworth
Main character Hilary Carew
+20 task
+15 combo (10.4 - England, 20.1 pub. 1937, 20.9 1878-1961)
+10 oldies
Task total 45
Grand total 125
10.5 Author AchievementsCity of Glass by Paul Auster
Review:
I suppose it's time for me to admit that I actually enjoy these weird post-modern novels. I didn't know what to expect from this book, the first in the New York Trilogy. At first, it seemed like it might be a detective novel, set in New York, with just slightly strange characters. But the novel takes a turn for the postmodern as the main character begins to lose touch with reality and devolves slowly into madness. Or does he? The novel does not provide answers. And it includes a twist that will either be fascinating or completely irritating as the reader learns that there is a novel within the novel buried in this story. In some ways, this book reminded me a bit of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. Recommended for those who like this sort of weird fiction; definitely not recommended for those looking for a straightforward plot or character study. I'm now immediately diving into Ghosts, the next in the trilogy.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.3, 20.4)
+5 Oldies (1985)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 85
10.4 Sovereign StatesYou Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane
Review: This book both delighted and frustrated me. It uses one of my favorite tropes – friends to lovers – combined with a shot of second chances, which is always nice. However, after beginning with a bang, the story started lagging in the middle. The premise is that Rachel and Ben were friends in college, and after not having seen each other in ten years, they begin a tentative new friendship. Ben is married and Rachel has just left her boyfriend of thirteen years. The story pings back and forth between Rachel’s mess of a life as a thirty-one-year-old and their relationship in college. Unfortunately, I eventually got really tired of both of them – a lack of communication can only be tolerated so far, right? Still, it was cute and sweet at the end, although I agree with other reviewers who wished for more – I’ve rarely seen people asking for an epilogue, but this book called out for one.
+10 Task (set entirely in the UK)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 160
20.8 Exiles and EmmigrantsLady of Devices by Shelley Adina
Review: I thought this book might be good to give my sister-in-law, but in the end decided not to gift it to her. It moved quickly – partially because it’s a short book and partially because I think it’s meant to be young adult (although it’s not listed at BPL). It’s basically a steampunk story – set in London in a vaguely Victorian time with interesting devices abounding. The main character, Claire, is graduating from finishing school and about to have her season when some horrible things happen and she’s forced to go out on her own. Wackiness ensues, yada yada – it was cute, but not something I desperately am looking forward to continuing. I might pick up the second in the series at some point. One thing to note – I wasn’t thrilled that the summary says something along the lines of “when she meets Andrew, she realizes more can come of her life.” Claire seems pretty set on GETTING more out of her life, and Andrew plays a passing role at best in this story, although he does have some chapters told from his perspective and the later books seem to feature him more heavily.
+20 Task (hopefully the statement "That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country…" in her profile is enough?)
+5 Combo (10.4 – set entirely in the UK)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 195
20.8 Exiles and EmmigrantsKat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
+20 Task (born in USA, lives in Wales)
Lexile 740 – no styles
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 215
15.4 A - ZM - P
The Marfa Lights and Other Stories by Mark Paxson
Task Total - 15 pts
Grand Total - 120 pts
10.4 - Island DreamsCandy by Kevin Brooks
Lexile 640
Set entirely in England
Task total: 10
Grand total: 105 points
20.8 Exiles and Emigrants :The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
Lexile 960
Born in Austria in 1925. Died in England in 2010.
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.9)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 315
20.10 - Goodreads FeatureAstonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
The Nutcracker ballet has been a highlight of the holiday season for me and my family during the holidays. We didn’t go to a live performance this year, but reading Astonish Me made me feel as if I did. Maggie Shipstead did a superior job describing the ballet performances in her book. I was completely entranced by those scenes. I enjoyed the whole book, although the plot itself was pretty predictable. As a former dancer, though, this book gave me a lot of joy and good memories. I also lived in the generation that was riveted by the defection of famous Russian dancers which added to my connections to the story. After reading through the other reviews, I do feel that those with a background in or love of ballet are the ones who get the most out of this book, so I recommend it highly to those readers. The plot of the book was somewhat similar to a movie that was out a number of years ago, The Turning Point, and it was fun to picture those characters as I read, especially the incomparable Mikhail Baryshnikov!
+20 Task: I'm so glad this one made the "Goldfinch list"!
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 270
15.2 A to ZG-V
Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
Task total: 15
Grand total: 100
15.1 A-ZB-W
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Lexile Score 990)
Great book of free form poetry BTW! I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. I really enjoyed it!
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 105
20.3 HistoricalAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review:
This was a 5 star book for me. It was shortlisted for the 2014 National Book Award. Set in World War II and told with two parallel storylines this spectacular book took Anthony Doerr ten years to write.
The book unfolds by telling parallel stories of a French family and a German family (well a pair of German orphans) from the late 1930's through the end of WWII (for the main part). The storyline switches back and forth between the two perspectives. The French blind girl, Marie Laure and the German orphan, Werner are really memorable characters. We watch as they grow up and are shaped by their different experiences during WWII. The scenes are so brilliantly written, that I may just have to go back and re-read this book a second time to savor them all again.
PS: Thanks for help in finding a non Square Peg task for this one!
+20 Task (#164 on Historical Fiction list)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 135
20.5 Mystery WomenThe Celtic Riddle by Lyn Hamilton
(the author of The Moai Murders for whom this task was originated)
Review:
This is the fourth book in Lyn Hamilton's mystery series featuring Lara McClintoch. It is set in Ireland, mainly in the southwest section around Dingle. It involves a treasure hunt set-up in the will of newly deceased Eamon Byrne that leads to the deaths of other characters.
I liked the riddle set-up. I've visited Ireland, and spent a few days in Dingle, so it was fun for me to revisit the area via this story. I didn't figure out whodunit until just about the end of the story, so that's another thing the book has going for it.
I've given this 4 out of 5 stars. It's a good solid mystery.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.4 - Island Dreams -- set in Ireland)
+10 Review
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 170
Task 20.8 - Exiles and Emmigrants Read a book written by an author who has more or less permanently settled in a country other than his/her homeland (the country of his/her original citizenship).
Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1963. At the age of ten her family immigrated to the United States. The back of my book states that she currently lives in New York City.
The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman #1) (2001) by Paullina Simons
Review:This historical novel begins on June 22, 1941, with the announcement of the Nazi attack on Russia. Our teenaged heroine, Tatiana, lives in Leningrad with her family. The novel follows her life over the next 2 years. Tatiana has romantic adventures in between dealing with death and destruction – sounds weird written in a sentence like that, but in this novel it works. I was impressed at how well the author was able to show (not tell) how wartime deprivations affected her characters. There is a very well written romantic interlude. The ending was (mild) (view spoiler) Overall, the author was successful in combing a grim wartime historical novel with an uplifting teen romance novel. Recommended.
+20 Task (#20.8 Immigrant)
+05 Combo (#10.2 Set in Russia)
+05 Jumbo 500-699 Pages: (most popular edition: 656 pages)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 05 + 10 = 40
Grand Total: 150 + 40 = 190
Post 119 Rosemary wrote: "10.4 - Island DreamsCandy by Kevin Brooks
Lexile 640
Set entirely in England
Task total: 10
Grand total: 105 points"
At this time, this book is not shelved as YA at BPL. If there are styles you'd like to claim, you are free to do so.
Post 120 Coralie wrote: "20.8 Exiles and Emigrants :The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
Lexile 960
Born in Austria in 1925. Died in England in 2010.
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.9)
Task total: 25..."
The GR setting says this takes place in Devon - does it take place in the UK at least 75%? If so, claim your 5 combo points for 10.4.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 120 Coralie wrote: "20.8 Exiles and Emigrants :The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
Lexile 960
Born in Austria in 1925. Died in England in 2010.
+20 task
+5 Com..."
I did measure it and about 35% is set in a fictional European country.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 119 Rosemary wrote: "10.4 - Island DreamsCandy by Kevin Brooks
Lexile 640
At this time, this book is not shelved as YA at BPL. If there are styles you'd like to claim, you are free to do so. "
Thanks Elizabeth! I wonder why I had that on my spreadsheet - maybe they used to have it. But I'll leave it - it doesn't qualify for anything unless I write a review and I'm onto the next books!
20.7 - 18th Century PlusThe Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
Canon
Review:
The Absentee is an engaging tale of 18th century decadence and 19th century virtue and energy, with Lord and Lady Clonbony, Irish gentry who have abandoned the country for London, plagued by debts and snobbery respectively, while their 20-year-old son idealistically returns to Ireland to see what is going on in their absence. Not surprisingly he finds corruption all around.
He is a little puritanical, determining not to marry the beautiful and virtuous woman he loves when he believes her to have been illegitimate, but all the same, it's clear that the author's sympathies are firmly with him, and she uses his trip to make several long polemical statements about the conditions in Ireland and the Union with Britain - which I didn't realise was as recent as 1801.
All the same, it's entertaining and fast-paced for a novel of the time.
+20 task (1811)
+ 5 combo (20.9 1767-1849)
+10 review
+15 oldies (1811)
Task total: 50
Grand Total: 155 points
20.2 - PersephoneWilfred and Eileen by Jonathan Smith
Review:
A fascinating story, a novelised biography of a real-life English couple who met in 1913, married secretly without the consent or knowledge of either set of parents, and acted with courage and determination when the husband was wounded in World War I. He had to give up his hopes of qualifying as a surgeon and face lifelong disability; she travelled to France to fetch him from the hospital and probably saved his life by bringing him to London where he could be operated on.
The story was told briefly to Jonathan Smith, a teacher, by one of his pupils who was their grandson. He then met their daughter and had access to letters and Wilfred's diary. All the same, he's clearly made up a lot, a delicate business when you're using your characters' real names and, as he says in the Afterword, when your characters' children are still alive. I think he brought it off very well.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.4 set 84% in England)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1976)
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 195 points
20.5 - Mystery WomenDark Places by Gillian Flynn
+20 Task (female protagonist)
Grand Total = 55 points
From Post 30Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.1 Anderson's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Task +10
Grand Total: 10"
+15 Oldies (pub 1837)
Krista wrote: " 20.3 HistoricalAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review:
This was a 5 star book for me. It was shortlisted for the 2014 National Book Award. Set in W..."
+5 Jumbo (531 pages in Most Popular Edition)
Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.4 Island DreamsMystery Mile by Margery Allingham, pub. 1929
Albert Campion returns in his full mystery. Allingham introduced Campion in her novel, Murder at Blac..."
+5 Combo 20.1-published 1906-1951
10.1 Square Peg Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Selected Readings by Milton J. Bennett
+10 task
Total: 30+10 = 40
Kate S wrote: "Krista wrote: " 20.3 HistoricalAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review:
This was a 5 star book for me. It was shortlisted for the 2014 National Book A..."
Wa-hoo! Thanks Kate. I've adjusted my personal scoring spreadsheet to a new Grand Totals of 175 points.
I wasn't sure what page count of the most popular version of the book was. I listened to it in audiobook format.
20.2 Persephone :Fire in the Bloodd by Irène Némirovsky
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.8)
+10 Non-Western
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 350
10.7 - Black Humour:Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Review:I read a couple of Gaimans earlier this year, but wasn't really a big fan. This is my first Pratchett and I enjoyed the collaboration much more. I don't usually "get" humourous novels (obviously it's the books, not me!), but the first three quarters of the book tickled me. Perhaps that's not surprising as I'm British, I was around in the 80s, and I like Queen!
I found the last quarter less entertaining. The pithy one-liners seemed less frequent, and it just seemed a mad dash to get the story-line all tied up and over with.
There were sections where I wondered if they were the product of just one pen. (Uncharitably, in my head I attributed the bits I found less successful to Gaiman.) But interviews with the authors at the back of my copy, and more on the book's Wiki page, described how their collaboration worked and I have decided that I really cannot tell who wrote what.
+10 task (number 2 on the Best Dark Humour LIst)
+5 combo (10.4 - Island Dreams: set in UK)
+10 review
+5 oldies (published 1990)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 350
Kate S wrote: "From Post 30Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.1 Anderson's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Task +10
Grand Total: 10"
+15 Oldies (pub 1837)"
Cool, I couldn't find a publication date.
20.5 Mystery Women :The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken
Lexile Unavailable
+20 task (female protagonist)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 370
15.4 H - MHere on the Edge: How a small group of World War II conscientious objectors took art and peace from the margins to the mainstream by Steve McQuiddy
+15 task
Grand Total: 80
10.8 Two for one3 books with a total of 102 pages:
1. 22 pages Zombie University by Trip Ellington
2. 39 pages Zombielein: Kein Mensch mag diese Geschichte. Kein Mensch. by DERHANK
3. 41 pages Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick
Review(s):
1. It was really ok. Nice and short. Unfortunately, it dragged - at bits were "dragging" would actually be deadly...dialoge was used when running would be more appropriate. And Sam's inner thoughts were more distracting and sometimes "dragging". The idea itself is kinda nice though, having students being stuck on campus during a zombification of the rest of the world.
2. A German short story, which was a nice one (kids turn into zombie-creatures after too much television/game console consumption), but the rest of the ebook consisted not of individual short stories but beginnings of the authors other books, which were not as entertaining.
3. A classic from 1953, with a weird story twist (a bit forseeable), and a weird ending...can't tell too much about it. Interesting idea for the early 50s! Typical Dick.
+10 task (102 pages total)
+10 review(s)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 55
10.4 - Island DreamsSmack by Melvin Burgess
Lexile 750
+10 task (set entirely in England)
Task total: 10
Grand Total: 220 points
20.7-18th Century PlusCato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays by Joseph Addison
+20 Task (p. 1712)
+20 Oldies
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 75
20.10 - Goodreads Feature:How To Be Both by Ali Smith
Review: This is the third book on the Man Booker shortlist 2014 that I have read, and it is the one to which I would have awarded the prize (but I haven't read The Narrow Road to the Deep North yet). It is so clever and there is so much going on, that it would easily stand immediate rereading.
There are two halves to the book, one about a Renaissance artist and the other about a 21st century teenager. Apparently, the order of the two halves is random among different copies of the book - mine had the Renaissance story first. It appears from many reviews that readers often prefer the one they have first, and that was true in my case, once I had got past the first few pages which gave the (wrong) impression that the whole thing was going to be very heavy going. At the changeover point, I was considering handing out the full 5 stars but, in the end, I plumped for 4 just because I was left wanting more of story one. Overall, though, it's a beautiful book and I would highly recommend.
+20 task (via Orfeo, approved in message 38 of help thread)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 380
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (other topics)Dirty Cop (other topics)
Ghosts (other topics)
One Con Glory (other topics)
The Winner (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Milan Kundera (other topics)Kyle Adams (other topics)
Paul Auster (other topics)
Sarah Kuhn (other topics)
David Baldacci (other topics)
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Blackout: Morgen ist es zu spät by Marc Elsberg
Review:
Blackout promised to be kind of an apocalyptic book at first. The thought of the whole of Europe robbed off electricity and all the commodities it includes was more than creepy. The book nicely explained what happens the first days of a total Europe-wide blackout, and it was rather believable or rather imaginable. At certain points in the book I started seriously thinking about real-life preparations at home: always store enough water, canned food, and candles!
Elsberg jumps back and forth from different regions and cities in Europe to portrait the local problems and what the government and agencies try to do. His focus is on the German government, Europol officials in Den Haag and Brussels, IT-technicians responsible for nuclear power plant software, and some single actors who travel (as much as is possible) through the countries while trying to find out what happened and survive the next cold day.
The story is really engaging and interesting, the writing style is down to earth, and the characters are believable. The overwhole story-arch might be (hopefully) more science fiction than it sometimes sounds. ;)
+10 Task
+10 review
+15 jumbo (800 pages)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 35