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Winter 14/15 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 14/15
20.4 - 1001Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Infinite Jest was picked for the 'most challenging chunkster' group read in one of my GR goups, and since it's on the 1001 list, I joined in and read it in small weekly sections with the group.
There's a lot about this book that is just amazing, but there were also some parts that just did not interest me (tennis, ONAN politics - even the wheelchair assassins, really). Parts could even be amazing (because so innovative or crazily imaginative) and yet still not grab me. All the same, I am very glad I read it and I think it will colour how I view a lot of literature and even life - mostly because of the honest, painful and sometimes hilarious way it views addiction and recovery.
Sadly (or maybe not) I am a traditional kind of reader that liked best the mostly chronological and personal stories of Don Gately and the other Ennet House recovery unit residents and AA members. The satire on the nature of entertainment in American society was clever but not that involving for me, although I did appreciate the descriptions of J.O. Incandenza's filmography more as the book went along. And there were parts of the footnotes, the tennis, the wheelchair assassins and even the politics that were really very funny and made it all worthwhile.
+20 task
+10 review
+25 jumbo (1079 pages)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 550 points
20.8 Exiles and EmmigrantsMax Overacts, Vol 1: Hold on to Your Stubs by Caanan Grail
+20 Task
Graphic Novel – no styles
Task Total: 20 (Australian, lives in Canada: http://occasionalcomics.com/bio/)
Grand Total: 970
10.10 Group ReadsToo Much Happiness by Alice Munro
Review: I’ve heard a lot about Alice Munro and how she’s a master of the short story and of telling tales of ordinary life – two things I’m not always much of a fan of. However, Munro proves that when put in the right hands, short stories and ‘literary fiction’ can convince me. At first, the title story, which closes out the collection, was my least favorite, until I realized that Munro based it on a real woman’s life. I think that with all of the stories I felt like she kept everything loose, not giving extreme detail that would not work in the form, but gave enough to feel a sense of understanding and completion. I’ll pick up more of hers at some point – she’s deserving of all the praise.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.9, 20.9)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1000
20.8 Exiles and EmmirgrantsThe Light Between Oceansby M.L. Stedman
This book takes place in Australia and the author was born in Australia and now lives in London. The author has been approved in the task thread.
Review
I am glad I read this book and stuck with it all the way. I liked the relationship between Tom and Isabel. Isabel was a strong woman in the beginning and knew what she wanted. Tom loved her unconditionally. One night, Tom finds a man dead in a boat and a live baby. After all that Isabel has suffered with the hardships she faced. She really wanted that baby. They took her in and raised her, named her Lucy. Then the baby's birth mother finds out her daughter is alive and my heart went out to both of them. Both mothers wanted to keep the girl. I thought they could have worked something out where both mothers could share the girl. I guess that is just my wishful thinking. The book does come full circle. I fell badly for everything Isabel suffered in her life, before and after she lost Lucy.
Task: +20
Style:+15 (Combo 10.4 Australia is on the approved list, Review)
Book Total: 35
Grand Total: 180
I need to move Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar, post #502, from 20.8 Exiles and Emigrants to 10.4 - Island Dreams. It will be a loss of 15 Points, so my new grand total will be:1095
10.7 Black HumorA Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Review:
This was a wonderfully diverting book with just the right balance of zany characters and situations with real heart and something to say about death in our society. I liked this the best of the Christopher Moore books I've read (which include Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Practical Demonkeeping, and The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror). The book teeters on the edge of being a bit too clever for its own good, but it won me over with it's obvious heart and the way that Moore seems to really like these characters even at their most zany. I'll definitely read other books by this author when I'm looking for lighthearted fun books to sandwich between more serious reads.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 455
20.3 Historical FictionThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
I don't know why, but I didn't have high expectations for this novel. I thought it would be sentimental and sappy, but I ended up loving it. Ishiguro expertly weaves a narrative about an aging butler's four day road trip, and ends up dwelling on his entire existence, the purpose of life, and the ugly realities of world war two, all in a perfectly constructed historical novel. More than anything it reminds me of Mrs. Dalloway, without the stream-of-consciousness. I enjoyed it a great deal!
20 pt. task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.4 -takes place in England, 10.3, 10.8)
+5 oldies
Task total:50
grand total: 450
Updated points for All the Light We Cannot See (post 311)+5 combo (20.10) All the Light We Cannot See
grand total: 405
Jama wrote: "20.3 Historical FictionThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro..."
The review is a little on the short side (only 85 words). Do you have another thought to add?
10.6 Foreign LanguageWoman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
In this short novel a condemned woman tells of her difficult and sorry life the day before she is to be executed. Moving from her early years with an abusive father and unsympathetic (step?) mother, to being married off to an old abusive husband, and her relatively liberating time as a self-employed prostitute, it has a lot to say about women's oppression in Egypt. Unfortunately, the author, or perhaps the translator, employs excessively poetical language which at times makes it difficult to tell what is going on. Did she have a romantic attachment to a female teacher at school? Was she raised by a mother or step-mother? Leaving important matters unsaid, or unclear, hurts the general thrust of the arguement. I did have the feeling, though, that a lot was lost in translation (whether it be language or cultural). Nevertheless, I am glad I read it.
10 point task
+10 review
+5 oldies
+10 non-western
+10 combo (20.4, 20.9 - born in 1931)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 495
20.10 Goodreads Feature :All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
+20 task (Thanks again Krista)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 1080
20.7 - 18th Century PlusLe jeu de l'amour et du hasard by Pierre de Marivaux
First published 1730
+20 Task
+20 Oldies
Task total = 40
Points total = 155
10.2 - NutcrackerDemons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It took me two months to read this one interspersed with many other books which tells me two things: it was challenging reading and it didn't really draw me into a plot the way other works by Dostoyevsky have (The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment). That said, it was excellent writing and a great translation with helpful notes and there were many sections that I loved. I had more trouble with interest in the subject of this novel, too. I understood the differences in philosophies of the groups, but just didn't relate to the themes that much. I think my beliefs lie somewhere between the two extremes depicted here both politically and religiously, so I couldn't identify strongly with the book and characters. I am glad to have read it, but I may be done with Dostoyevsky for a while now!
+10 Task (Russia)
+10 Non-Western
+10 Review
+10 Jumbo (733)
+10 Oldies (1872)
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 1160
20.9 - Respect EldersSpinoza by Stuart Hampshire
I became interested in the 17th-century Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza because I thought I saw a similarity with the philosophy and religion of the Far East, especially Zen Buddhism. Since I heard that reading the Ethics raw was a difficult undertaking for a non-philosopher, I decided to try this elucidation which is now over 60 years old but still seems to be the best known introduction to Spinoza's philosophy and metaphysics. I was glad I did because I loved it. It's still not that easy, perhaps, but with careful reading it was clear enough, and does have a lot in common with Zen as far as I understand them both.
The last chapter deals with political theory and criticism of Spinoza's metaphysics, and is more dated simply because of the historical and scientific developments that have happened since it was written in 1952, but I'd still highly recommend this to anyone interested in Spinoza.
+20 task (Stuart Hampshire 1914-2004)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1952)
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 585 points
10.4 - Island Dreams:Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan
I'm not doing a proper review but just wanted to say WOW! 5 stars! What amazing writing for a debut novel.
+10 task (set in Tasmania, Australia)
Task total: 10
RwS total: 930
AtoZ total: 15
Grand Total: 945
10.4 Sovereign StatesThen Came You by Lisa Kleypas
Review: Then Came You was published in 1993, and its age shows a little. It’s not quite so bad as some older historical romances, but I definitely prefer more recent entries – the gender dynamics and the way it treats consent skirts the line with me. The premise is pretty simple – Lily is a “bad girl” by reputation, and when she realizes her sister is engaged to a cold, unfeeling earl when she’s really in love with a less rich man, she sets out to stop the marriage. Alex and Lily hate each other but come to care for each other. It’s got a bunch of tropes I like, but unfortunately the pieces never quite came together. I liked the side characters more than the main characters, no one quite grew enough for me to completely buy into the happily ever after, and the early love scenes were not consensual for my liking. It’s not a bad book, but I think there’s a reason I mostly stick to romances published in this century.
+10 Task (set entirely in the UK)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1020
Coralie wrote: "20.10 Goodreads Feature :All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
+20 task (Thanks again Krista)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 1080"
You're welcome! How did you like it? I don't think I'll have time to work it in this season. :-(
Krista wrote: "Coralie wrote: "20.10 Goodreads Feature :All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
How did you like it?"
I was very wary of it at the beginning. I don't think I would have finished it if it wasn't a book for my f2f bookgroup. But once I got into it, I started to enjoy it. I quite liked the way the past bits kept going further into the past so you knew how people were promising things that they had no intention of delivering. I'm not sure about the ending though. All in all I have very mixed feelings about it.
Coralie wrote: "Krista wrote: "Coralie wrote: "20.10 Goodreads Feature :All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
How did you like it?"
I was very wary of it at the beginning. I don't..."
Thanks for the info!
Valerie wrote: "Kate S wrote: "Valerie wrote: "10.8 2 for 1The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka The novella itself is 51 pages in this version (the rest is analysis and essays)
"Lady S..."
For the purposes of our challenges, it is the book which counts. The Metamorphosis is the MPE and it is listed at over 200 pages. It does not work for 10.8.
Claire wrote: "Updated points for How to be both (post 364) and All the Light We Cannot See (post 311) - both were approved for Goodreads Features - 20.10 so I'd like to claim comb..."I have added the combo points for All the Light We Cannot See. However, you claimed How to be Both for 20.10, you can not also get combo points for 20.10. Sorry.
Angela wrote: "10.3 - 1980sWinter's Tale by Mark Helprin
I really liked this book. The book was set in New York around the turn of the 20th century and in present times, yet it wasn't..."
Angela, this review is a little short (77 words). Can you add a little more?
From Post 124Krista wrote: " 20.3 Historical
All 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 Combo 20.10
From Post 348Tobey wrote: "20.3 Historical Fiction
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
I don’t think this ..."
+5 Combo 20.10
From Post 432Katy wrote: "20.3 Historical Fiction
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I loved this book! The book tells the story of two young people in the leadup to and events of..."
+5 Combo 20.10
Jama wrote: "20.3 Historical FictionThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
I don't know why, but I didn't have high expectations for this novel. I thought it would be sentimental...
15 combo (10.4 -takes place in England, 10.3, 10.8"
Did you mean 20.8, not 10.8?
+5 Combo 20.4-1001 list
10.1 Group ReadThe Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
The Penelopiad is the counterpoint to Homer's Odyssey from the mouth of Penelope, Odysseus' wife. The work has Penelope, now dead and therefore free to be completely honest, informing the reader about her travails. She is a Princess of Sparta and the cousin to Helen of Troy. As Odysseus goes off to fight the Trojan War, we learn that Penelope (left at the Palace in Ithaca) resents Helen, who enjoys the fact that nations are fighting over her. Penelope, who truly loves Odysseus, fights off many suitors once Odysseus is presumed dead. To placate the demanding men seeking her favors, she promises to marry once she finishes weaving a shroud for Laertes. But every night she undoes the weaving she did during the day...and so on and so on. Once I understood the structure of the novel, I expected it to be unique and intriguing. Well, not so much. I KNOW that Atwood couldn't have intended for me to finish the book wondering about the catty relationship between Penelope and Helen...and yet, that is what I came away with. Both Penelope and Helen reduced in stature. hmmm
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.5)
total= 25
grand total= 695
10.4 - Island DreamsThe Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
I have different rules for different genres when it comes to enjoying a book. I always want good writing no matter what, but in detective fiction, my main need is a detective I like reading about. This means that it needs to be a character with an interesting backstory and with unique characteristics, not that I have to like his/her morals and behavior. Cormoran Strike and his sidekick, Robin (do I think Galbraith/Rowling uses this name on purpose? Absolutely!) fit the character requirement perfectly. I enjoyed the way their relationship developed in this second book. Secondary interests of mine are, of course, a good mystery that I can’t figure out in advance (which, for me, isn’t saying much because I’m not good at figuring out mysteries in advance) and an intriguing venue. This one was set in the publishing world and certainly hit on the darker possibilities of a world Rowling knows well. The search for the killer was well plotted and laid out the clues without being in any way obvious. It all added up to a great read!
+10 Task: England
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1180
10.3 1980'sBright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
#70 on the list
I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. It gets very mixed reviews - people either seem to love it or hate it, and I guess I fall on the love side (this was really a 4.5 star for me, even though I gave it four on goodreads).
The general complaints about this book seem to be that it's about a rich, spoiled white kid who does a bunch of cocaine and has no redeeming qualities - readers kind of can't stand the main character, it seems. Frankly, this baffles me a bit. While the character (who remains unnamed) is what I would call "privileged" - Ivy League educated, works for a Prestigious Magazine that I have a hunch is the New Yorker, although it's never named, married a beautiful girl from the midwest who ends up becoming a model in NYC. And yes, there is a lot of drug use in this novel. So on the surface, I can see how this would annoy some of the audience.
However, I don't get how you could actually read this book and come away with the notion that this guy is simply a spoiled jerk, The End. He demonstrates time and time again that he has heart, that he cares about his colleagues (even if he fails to follow through with his intentions, they are genuine), that he is grieving parts of his past so profoundly life-changing (I won't put any spoilers here) that the situations would cause anyone to react in ways that might not resemble their best selves.* And the main character knows this - some of the most disarming parts of this character are the times when he has been out partying all night, screwing up his work assignments, etc., and then pauses to reflect that in his better, imagined life, he is the kind of guy who enjoys coming home at night to curl up in his comfy chair and read books and share his life with someone smart and interesting. He has created a cocoon of safety and maturity and a life full of small but frequent pleasures. My take is that he's very aware of his two selves in conflict - the one that's acting out, poorly, in response to his losses, and the one that yearns to be something so much better.
This is one of the best coming of age novels I've read since The Moviegoer. Readers have compared this to The Catcher in the Rye, but I just don't see the main character in this book to be nearly as outwardly callous and cynical as Holden Caulfield. Perhaps it struck a chord with me because I also experienced a similar loss at a similar age and it turned me into a self-destructive, self-absorbed jerk for a while. McInerney, to me, captures all the angst and longing and unfulfilled promises of early adulthood in a way that is honest and true, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
*This loss, by the way, isn't revealed until late in the book, which was interesting to me - you have to get through a lot of this guy's really poor life choices before understanding what might be causing him to act this way. I think that this was particularly effective in showing how judgmental we can be towards others who make poor choices or act erratically, when what we really should be doing is trying to understand why that person hurts, what's causing the behavior. Because almost everyone who is a jerk on the outside is usually suffering a lot of pain on the inside.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
task total: 25
grand total: 430
10.4 Island DreamsThe Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Rosie Project was a fun, entertaining read once I got past the main character’s personality. While I know there are people that are rigid in their schedules and how they live their lives, I found it odd to read about and had trouble adjusting to it as I kept thinking “Why would anybody live this way?” Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with it, it doesn’t make you a bad person, it was just odd to read about. Don Tillman got himself into some interesting situations because of his personality. After all, variety is the spice of life and Don finally learned about that by the end of the book. I wouldn’t put this as one of my 5 star reads for 2015 though.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.10)
Task Total=25
Adjusted Grand Total after adding Combo Points in post 636=225
Grand Total=250
20.1 RwS AnniversaryA Diary Without Dates by Enid Bagnold
Book originally published in 1918
Review:
This debut book by Enid Bagnold was published in 1918. It really is a copy of her undated diary from the time spent working in a hospital in England during WWI. She worked as a nurse’s aide, and saw all sorts of things that disturbed her about the hospital; things over and above the wounds the soldiers had received in combat. She didn’t like the cavalier attitude a great many of the nurses (‘sisters’) had toward their patients. In her opinion they didn’t seem to care if the men were in great pain or not, etc.
Enid was a woman of independent means, so she could afford to have this work published because it didn’t matter to her if she were then black-listed from the health care field. In fact, she went on to write many more books. Her best known work is National Velvet.
The diary entries were interesting slice-of-life snapshots of the inner workings of a WWI era wartime hospital. You could tell that the author got attached to some patients, and they to her. There were also some very nicely written descriptions about the scenery on her walks home, and interactions with other folks outside of the hospital. I’m giving it a 3 star rating. I liked it for what it was, a book made up of short sketches.
Rating = 3 stars
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.4 England, 20.2 Persephone, 20.9 91 years old)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (Publ 1918)
Task Total = 55
+5 New Combo Points for All the Light We Cannot See added Combo with task 20.10. (My original post #124, Kate's update post #635)
Grand Total = 540
10.7 Black HumorBeat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
(#31 on the list on 2/4/14)
Review:
This book appeared as one of the top 100 books on the Best Dark Humor Books list in Goodreads' Listopia. I thought I'd give it a shot since reading a book from this list was a required task for the Reading with Style Group’s Winter Challenge. I knew going into it, that this is not one of my favorite genres so perhaps I was already pre-disposed to dislike the book. But I REALLY disliked this book which surprised me since one of my friends who usually shares my reading tastes highly recommended it.
I suppose the ironic way in which the story was told by the main character could sometimes be humorous. The main character was a former mafia hit man who is now finishing up his medical training at an inner city New York hospital. But the mix of mafia entanglements and shenanigans coupled with the vagaries of life in a hospital just wasn't something I really wanted to read about. I didn't care about the characters that did really ugly violent things to themselves or to others. The heavy dose of cynicism and explicit descriptions of violence just left me cold. I guess I don’t really like reading about the underbelly of modern society.
Rating = 1 star
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 560
20.9 Respect Elders :Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré
+20 task (born 1931)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 1100
10.3 1980sAn Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
I read this soon after reading The Remains of the Day. So, I now think I can put Ishiguro on my favorite authors list. Through seamless digressions, the reader "floats" back and forth into different scenes experienced by the narrating artist. A mystery gradually is revealed as the narrator, now an older man in post-war Japan deals with the complications of his former actions on his family, himself and his society. The novel starts at the Bridge of Hesitation in a small Japanese town in 1948 which is still rebuilding. We learn that his younger daughter's prospective marriage engagement failed after something in the narrator's life was revealed to the prospective groom's family. What could it be? To say much more would serve as a spoiler. Don't expect hidden murders or perversions. Do expect to be brought into a man's life, thoughts and dilemmas. Five stars.
+10 task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.4-Japan; 20.4; 20.8)
+5 oldie (1986)
total=40
grand total= 735
10.4 Island DreamsRachel Ray by Anthony Trollope
This was a prime example of how well Trollope writes his female characterizations. One of his minor characters has squinty eyes and a narrow view of life, and she is the one who sees something and starts all the trouble. The widowed sister whose sour countenance can be full of dark looks does, indeed, have a sour, dark outlook on life. Young Rachel Ray herself, though shy and obedient, has more fortitude within than one might expect.
The Trollope Society has this classed with the Comic Novels. I'm not sure what criteria they used in their classifications. I find many amusing passages in all of Trollope's novels and this one included much drama. However, not to give too much away, there is within this some womanly manipulation of a husband that I suppose some would find comic.
Because I've become such a fan, I'm beginning to think my ratings of Trollope are less reliable than perhaps other readers' opinions. That said, this is another read that sits toward the top of my 4-star pile. It's also shorter than many of my Trollope favorites, so you wouldn't run amiss even starting with this one to see if you like him enough to reach for his longer novels.
+10 Task (takes place entirely in UK)
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (pub 1863)
Task Total = 35
Grand total = 540
20.10 Goodreads FeatureThe Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Review:
I really wanted to like this book. And once I got through the first third, I found it engrossing. But in the end, I don't think I really liked it. I never liked the main character, didn't like the romance at the heart of the story, and felt the effort to show the Japanese perspective was off somehow.
Also, the flashback and switching around in time structure never quite held together for me. Just when I would feel fully engrossed in a story, yank, we'd be back to a part of the story that I didn't care so much about.
I listened to this as an audiobook. Perhaps I would have liked it more if I'd read it in print.
+20 Task (Orfeo)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.9)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 490
20.5 Mystery WomenThe End of Everything by Megan Abbott
+20 task
+10 review
This is the first book I've read by Megan Abbott, but based on what I see on Goodreads she has a pretty large and dedicated fan base. Readers seem to love her for her lush language, her pulse on noir fiction, and her accurate (and often cringeworthy) depictions of what it's like to be a teenager. While her fans seem to adore her, her detractors seem to loathe her. My guess is that Megan Abbott writes about teenagers, but her books are definitely not meant for a teenage audience. I think a lot of people picked up this book thinking it was YA, and it's most definitely not. There are incredibly complex, disturbing adult-themes going on here. So I think a lot of readers dislike her work because they didn't get what they thought they were signing up for.
The End of Everything is narrated by Lizzie, a thirteen year old whose best friend and next door neighbor, Evie, goes missing early on in the book. Lizzie, who has known Evie her entire life, takes it upon herself to try and piece together what happened to Evie - who took her, why, and how to get her back. She becomes a sneaky little detective, feeding clues to the local police. At the same time, she uses these revelations as a way to earn love and respect and adoration from Evie's father, whom she loves desperately in a teenage girl crush kind of way.
Lizzie's character is so well done, I found myself with goosebumps many times while reading this because so much of what it's like to be thirteen - that gangly, awkward in between time where girls are going through puberty and experiencing, for the first time, true romantic (and sexual) feelings - feelings that they have no idea what to do with. Abbott describes being a teenage girl better and more accurately than anything I've read before. The confusion, the longing, the desire to be a kid while at the same time wanting to be a grown-up, the swing of emotions that comes with growing up.
There's so much more to this story that I'm not going to expand on for fear of spoilers, but let's just say that this story is much, much darker and much, much deeper than I expected it to be. I can't wait to read more of Megan Abbott's books!
task total: 30
grand total: 460
20.7 18th CenturyVathek by William BeckfordWhat an odd book. I guess the best way to characterize it is a fairy tale celebrating excess. Vathek is a Caliph renowned for his enthusiasm for every sort of sensual pleasure. In good enlightenment fashion, he builds individual palaces for each type, including The Temple of Melody, and The Palace of Perfumes. You get the idea. His mother, a witch knowledgeable in the Dark Arts, encourages him to enter into contract with some evil character in order to gain entrance to the underground palaces of the Pre-Adamite Kings where unknown riches and wonders abound. Vathek wants MORE (knowledge, stuff, women), so he goes along with it, even if it means killing the children of his subjects, etc. This is a very episodic story, and a lot of it depicts the journey, and the temptations on the way to the treasure. What is more interesting to me than the novel, is the obvious link between the story and the biography of Beckford. Apparently Beckford, himself excessively weathly, given to excess spending, grandiose building projects, and surrounding himself with his own harem of young boys, meant Vathek to be autobiographical, and this story contributed to the public's impression of him. I think, though, that I would have preferred to read a non-fiction investigation into the links (both real and invented) between the author's life and that of his protaganist, than the book itself. As a literary work, divorced from most of its historical context (due to my limited knowledge of this time period), it is difficult to make sense of.
20 pt. task
10 pt. review
+5 combo (20.9 - 1759-1844)
+15 oldies (published 1786)
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 545
Joanna wrote: "20.10 Goodreads FeatureThe Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Review:
I really wanted to like this book. And once I got through the first third, I f..."
I'm glad someone else agrees with me about the romance. We discussed this book at our bookgroup meeting this Tuesday and I was the only one who struggled with the first part.
20.9 Respect EldersDear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
It's been several years since I read a collection of stories by Alice Munro. I keep thinking I'll pick up another and then it gets put off until another challenge season. And so on. But a friend loaned me her copy of Dear Life: Stories, and it fit this season. I have been reading more Victorian-era fiction of late, and I was surprised at how simple is Munro's prose. That simple style is deceptive as there is so much meaning contained in it.
The best part of this collection is the final four stories, and of them she prefaces:
The final four works in this book are not quite stories. They form a separate unit, one that is autobiographical in feeling, though not, sometimes, entirely so in fact. I believe they are the first and last - and the closest - things I have to say about my own life.I don't know enough of her biography to know where these stories might depart from fact, and so I choose to see her as having lived these stories. They are all of her childhood in the almost-country, not-quite town of southwestern Ontario. They were special as she is herself.
+20 Task (b. 1931)
+ 5 Combo (20.10)
+10 Review
Task Total = 35
Grand total = 575
20.3 Historical Atonement by Ian McEwan
#13 on the historical list
This is an unusual circumstance where I appreciated the movie more than the book. If I had not seen the movie, I think I might have abandoned the book..something I rarely do. I found the novel so tedious at several points. There is one scene near the end of Part 3 where Briony receives a letter from an editor who has chosen NOT to publish her manuscript that relates the story of this novel...Briony's confession- or an attempt at atonement. I want to associate myself with the faults and suggestions made by the editor. (I wonder if McEwan received such a letter and chose to resubmit the novel to a less demanding editor unchanged?) The basic plot has Briony, a 13 year-old girl and precocious writer, who accuses a friend of the family, Robbie, of the rape of her cousin..even though she is uncertain of the truth. The next five years, we learn how that accusation (and conviction) affects the lives of Briony, Robbie, and Briony's sister, Cecilia, who is in love with the Robbie...at least we learn how Briony, as a novelist, constructs the story of those years. Without being snarky, the epilogue is probably the best part.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.4- takes place mostly in England)
total= 35
grand total= 770
20.10 - Goodreads FeatureStation Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Recommandation for The Goldfinch using the arrows (it is not listed anymore but it was, as discussed in the discussion topic)
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo (20.8 - Canadian living in the US)
Task total = 25
Points total = 180
Ed wrote: "20.3 Historical Atonement by Ian McEwan
#13 on the historical list
This is an unusual circumstance where I appreciated the movie more than the book. If I had not see..."
I agree entirely, Ed. I disliked the book so much I have avoided the movie and all other books by McEwan.
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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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Yes Please (2014) by Amy Poehler (Hardcover, 329 pages)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 535 + 10 = 545