Reading with Style discussion
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Winter 14/15 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 14/15
Liz M wrote: "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 ..."
Sure - I didn't realize there was a minimum word count:
I particularly liked the way Ishiguro seamlessly wove the Butler's ruminations about his life and job into the narrative about his road trip. He is such a deeply thoughful character, and it is more than a little ironic that he determined to become better at bantering to please his new employer. He was a great narrative voice.
The only other book by Ishiguro I have read was Never Let Me Go, and I was not that enthusiastic about it. But after reading The Remains of the Day, I am excited to read many other books by him.
20.4 - 1001The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino
I am a real sucker for coming of age novels, so this first work by Italo Calvino was quite enjoyable reading for me even though it was set in wartime. Calvino fought as a partisan, so the book felt accurate, although the main character, Pin, also seemed exaggerated at times. I found him endearing, even when he was being obnoxious, and he made a good catalyst for the story. The conflict between the worlds of childhood and adulthood, especially through the lens of war, was the greatest strength of the book. It’s well written and straightforward in style, not really the same in technique as Calvino’s later great works. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to fans of Calvino, those interested in Italian history and lovers of the coming of age novel.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.1 - RwS Anniversary! (1947)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1947)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 1260
From Post 642Claire wrote: "10.3 1980's
Bright 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 eithe..."
+5 Oldies
From Post 643Tobey wrote: "10.4 Island Dreams
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Rosie Project was a fun, entertaining read once I got past the main character’s personality. While I k..."
+5 Combo 20.8
From Post 648Ed wrote: "10.3 1980s
An 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 ..."
+5 Combo 20.10
10.6 - Foreign Language:Decoded by Mai Jia
(originally published in Mandarin)
Review: Mai Jia has been described as "the most popular writer in the world you've never heard of". He is one of the best-selling writers in China today, with total sales over five million copies, and has won every major literary award in China (according to this book's blurb).
The book tells the story of Rong Jinzhen, an orphaned, probably autistic, mathematical genius, who is taken in a by family (possibly distantly related to himself) of academics. He has a happy, if somewhat accelerated, childhood but is later "transferred" to the secret Unit 701, which is concerned with cryptography. He job is to crack the most difficult codes ever created.
The first part of the book concerns Zhendi's (as he is known by his adopted family) family history and his adoption. The later part relates how he got on once he became part of the secret services and the effect it has on his life and mental well-being. There is an element of mystery surrounding the identity of the creator of codes PURPLE and BLACK, which came to take over Zhendi's life so completely.
It felt to me that the book definitely had a different sensibility. There was little description of the characters' internal thoughts and motivations; instead it had an almost biographical quality. The use of "interview transcripts" to give different narrative viewpoints was interesting, and reminded me a little of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, although that was the only similarity. I'm not sure that the last part, which consists of apparently disconnected excerpts from Zhendi's notebooks, was necessary and in fact the author/narrator even says this in the text!
Overall, it was an interesting read, which I enjoyed, and quite unlike any other book I have picked up.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 - Economical: 2014 list)
+10 review
+10 non-Western
Task total: 35
RwS total: 965
AtoZ total: 15
Grand Total: 980
10.1 - Square Peg:We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
(Lexile 600)
+10 task
I think this completes my RwS Challenge, so also claiming 100 bonus points (phew!).
+100 RwS Completion bonus
Task total: 10
Completion bonus:100
RwS total: 1075
AtoZ total: 15
Grand Total: 1090
20.7-18th Century PlusReading Sex in the Eighteenth Century: Bodies and Gender in English Erotic Culture by Karen Harvey
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 205
Cory Day wrote: "15.10 Z-AZorro by Isabel Allende
+30 Task
Task Total: 30
Completion Bonus: 100
Grand Total: 1150"
Congrats on you A-Z Finish, Cory!
I keep forgetting to update :(10.10 Group Reads
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
When I was at university I had read part of a biography of Sackville-West, ( Vita: The Life of Vita Sackville-West ) and it had always kind of haunted my memory. I had never read anything of her works, and have no recollection of why I was reading it, but she struck a chord and stayed with me.
Seeing it on the group reads list, I knew I finally had to take the plunge, and I thoroughly enjoyed it ( perhaps more than I would normally have after my dislike of my previous read, Almost Transparent Blue ).
The story was well written, with a light touch. You often felt like you were in the same dreamy state as the recently widowed Lady Slane, and wished that you could be surrounded by such a a funny bunch of characters as she.
I imagine that a woman of 88 wanting to do her own thing and live her own life may have been a little shocking and eccentric back when this was written, but I kind of wish she had been able to push those boundaries a little more.
I did find the ending a little abrupt, but other than that really enjoyed this quick little read.
+10 task
+10 oldies (1931)
+10 review
+10 combo (10.4 - United Kingdom; 20.1 - 1931)
Total : 40
Grand Total : 235
10.9 EconomicalTrain Dreams by Denis Johnson
I have been curious about Denis Johnson for some time, so I am glad the Economics list had this book on it. It gave me the push I needed to read it, and I am so glad I did. Train Dreams is a novella which I read in one sitting, but it covers the entire life of the protaganist Robert Granier. Granier works a variety of jobs: building train bridges, cutting lumber, hauling goods, in the American West at the beginning of the 20th century. I am a sucker for stories written in this setting, and Train Dreams did not disappoint. Johnson uses beautiful language to vividly paint important scenes in Granier's life. When he takes his prospective wife to visit the land he had just purchased, for instance, Johnson tells us "the white daisies dabbed the field so profusely that it seemed to foam." Yet dialogue is sparse, to the point, and feels historically accurate. Without really romanticizing the American west, the novella feels like a eulogy to a dead way of life, when "there were mountains enough for everybody to get his own." I will definitely be reading more by Johnson in the future.
10 pt. task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total:570
20.10 Goodreads FeatureNight Film by Marisha Pessl
I picked up this book for the author, having really enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and stayed for the absolute weirdness of the story. The book tells the story of an investigation into the death of Ashley Cordova, daughter of a legendary, reclusive “night film” director. On one hand, it’s a straightforward mystery with the interesting element of having some “primary sources” included in the book, like photos that the investigators discover, scraps of paper with addresses, web searches, etc. On the other hand, it’s a bizarre story populated by characters that are both really really strange and somewhat unbelievable. I enjoyed reading it, in the end, and also enjoyed the “extras” you get if you download a free app and scan certain illustrations in the book.
+20 task (from The Goldfinch)
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 415
20.9 Respect EldersMrs. Pollifax Unveiled by Dorothy Gilman
+20 task (Gilman lived 1923-2012)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 435
10.5 Author AchievementsThe Lover by Marguerite Duras
Awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1989: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian...
I think I went into this one with not enough information - I didn't know anything about Duras' life or anything before starting this one, so I didn't realize that it was pretty much a memoir. I wish I'd read about the book before reading it (not something I do very often for fear of ruining the experience), because I was honestly confused for most of this one. The author - while discussing herself - fluctuated between first and third person narrative, which was even more baffling. I often had to go back and re-read the last page to grasp just exactly who she was referring to - herself? Her mother? - when she used "her" or "she." Same with the members of her family and her lover - no one had names, they were all "he" or "him." It truly felt like more effort than it was worth (again, maybe this wouldn't have been the case if I hadn't gone in so blindly).
Still, the writing itself was lush, poetic, gorgeous, haunting. I just had a hard time connecting with the narrator (whoever that might be!!).
This was three stars for the writing - would probably give it 2 for the story itself.
+10 task
+10 review
+20 combo (10.3 - 1980s, 20.4 - 1001, 20.8 - Exiles & Emmigrants, 20.9 - Respect Elders, she died at 81)
+5 oldies
task total: 45
grand total: 505
10.3 1980'sThe Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Years ago, in 2012, I read the first book in the Discworld series. I’d heard so many good things about it and how awesome it was that I just had to read it. I even researched it to make sure I was reading the books in order since there are so many of them and as a reader, I am very anal about reading books in order.
But I didn’t love The Colour of Magic back then. I found it hard to get into and hard to follow the storyline but I didn’t want to give up so I decided to give Discworld another try with the second book, The Light Fantastic. I had heard that it takes some time to get into the series. Well I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t love this book either. I wanted to like this series, I really did but I just don’t. I think the storyline was easier to follow in this second book (it had a plot that I could actually understand) but I’m still not loving it and as a friend said to me recently “Life is too short for books you don’t enjoy.” Ain’t that the truth!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 OIdies (1986)
Task Total=25
Adjusted Total from Post 666=255
Grand Total=280
20.3 Historical :Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
+20 task (#44 on list)
+5 Combo (20.9 born 1914, died 2000)
+5 Oldies (published 1969)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 1145
10.5 Author AchievementsThe Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
2001 Princess of Asturias Award Literarture (Letras)
Review:
I'm giving this 4 stars right now, but I suspect that I may move it up to 5 stars if the book's imagery lingers and the impact of the story strengthens. Right now I can still feel the oppressive African heat that Mary Turner's life is blighted by. (It's a cold rainy winter morning in Portland, Oregon.) But Mary's life was blighted before she agreed to marry Dick and move to his remote farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
This is Doris Lessing's debut book, and the quiet unfolding of the story while sometimes a bit plodding seems perfectly paced by the time the book ends. We follow Mary from childhood in rural African towns through her happy years working as a secretary in the city to her eventual marriage to Dick Turner and her move to his isolated farm. The book opens with Mary's violent death. The rest of the book describes the inexorable path to that death. We’re led down Mary’s spiral of depression and mental illness that is interlaced with racial tensions between the Turner’s and the black natives required to run their farm and household.
Rating: 4 stars
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (20.1 - publ. 1950, 20.4, 20.9 - 94 years)
+ 5 Oldies
Task Total = 40
Grand Total = 600
10.2 NutcrackerCity of Thieves by David Benioff
Review:
I listened to this in audiobook format during part of the time that I was reading Doris Lessing’s, The Grass is Singing. The contrast of the climates, and story pacing was shocking. Going from the bitter Russian winter in and around Leningrad to the oppressive African heat of Zimbabwe sometimes took a little time to make the mental transition. Maybe I’ve read too much WWII fiction lately, but this book just left me a little (ahem) cold.
I liked the audiobook format narrated by Ron Perlman. Don’t get me wrong, the writing was good. The story, set during a week of the Nazi siege of Leningrad, was just a little bleak for me right now. The book centers around two ‘thieves’ who are ordered on a quest by a high-ranking German official who needs a dozen eggs so that his daughter can have cake at her wedding. 17-year-old Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. To avoid the prospect of execution, they set out find the dozen eggs. Their journey takes them through beleaguered, starving Leningrad and out into the frozen countryside surrounding Leningrad.
There was one particularly horrifying scene of torture (as least it was to me) that I would have skipped over had I been reading a printed copy of the book. As it was I listened to the whole thing. I’m sure it was in keeping with the types of things that were done during the war. I just wasn’t didn’t really want to listen to another atrocity. I’m giving this a 3 star rating, because the writing was good; the story moved along at a good pace; and I liked the two main characters. But eventually the bleakness of the whole situation and the unfair turns life sometimes takes was just a bit much for my reading psyche at the moment.
Rating: 3 stars
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 620
20.2 Persephone Cheerful Weather For The Wedding by Julia Strachey
Review:
This little book, re-issued by Persephone Books, was originally published in 1932. It's basically a slice-of-life sketch of the folks (an overbearing mother, family members, an ex-boyfriend, clergy, servants etc.) involved in, or getting in the way of, the preparations for Dolly and Owen's wedding day. Some of the scenes are perfectly pitched. I liked how the author captured the younger boy's bickering back and forth throughout the day. Some of the scenes weren't quite as successful.
But all in all I enjoyed stepping into the midst of the chaos for a few hours. The spring weather is blustery and changeable just like it appears Dolly's future may be. You’ll have to read this book yourself to see if Dolly’s former boyfriend can screw up enough courage to declare himself before the wedding. Sorry, no spoilers here.
Rating: 3 stars
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4 - England, 20.1 Publ 1932)
+10 Style - Oldies
Task Total = 50
Grand Total = 670
20.4 1001Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
Review:
I originally gave this book a 4 star rating, but after waiting about six weeks to write the review, I've upped it to 5 stars. The story is just so endearing. It's witty, and captures the language and mores of the fast living social set of London circa 1938.
I listened to this in audiobook format. It was narrated by Frances McDormand who played Miss Pettigrew in the 2008 film. She captured the voices and the essence of the book perfectly. I don't know if I would have liked the book so well if I'd read it in print format. Miss Pettigrew (unbeknownst to herself) makes all the right responses to the various social dilemmas posed to her throughout the day. Her down-to-earth perspective is just what the group of self-centered folks she encounters needs to help set their worlds straight. In the process, she manages to set her own world straight too. I found it to be a delightful read. It's another wonderful book re-issued by Persephone Books.
Rating: 5 stars
+20 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.4 England, 20.1 publ 1938, 20.2, 20.9 - 97 years old)
+10 Style - Oldies
Task Total = 60
Grand Total = 730
20.2 Persephone :William - An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton
+20 task
+10 Combo (20.1 published 1919, 20.9 born 1872, died 1952)
+10 Oldies (published 1919)
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 1200
20.4 - 1001The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
+20 Task
+15 Combo: Combo: 10.4 - Island Dreams (England) / 20.1 - RwS Anniversary! (1918) / 20.9 - Respect Elders (1892-1983)
+10 Oldies (1918)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 1325
20.7 Expanded 18th CenturyManon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
This is almost exclusively plot. Throughout, I was reminded of a quote from Balzac's The Muse of the Department
Formerly all that was expected of a romance was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared for that, not even the author; as to ideas -- zero; as to local color -- non est. By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, and complete information; he insists on the five literary senses - Invention, Style, Thought, Learning, and Feeling.To be fair, there is a little more than that of which Balzac complained - but not much. The Kindle edition I read did not include the name of the translator and perhaps translation had as much to do with the lack of style as the author.
Published more than 250 years ago and viewed with a 21st Century lens, this is amusing. Our hero, the young Chevalier de Grieux is innocent of practical matters and Manon Lescaut too practical in an economic sense to remain his faithful mistress. This would take most of you an afternoon to read. I dawdled - perhaps it would have been better had I raced through it.
+20 Task (pub 1731)
+10 Review
+20 Oldies
Task total = 50
Grand Total = 625
10.5 - Author Achievements: The Sea by John Banville
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 - Island Dreams (Ireland)
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 1340
10.7 Black HumorThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
+10 task
grand total: 515
10.5 Author Achievements :The Successor by Ismail Kadare
+10 task (winner of the Princess of Austria Award)
+5 Combo (20.8 born in Albania, lives in France)
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 1215
20.10 Goodreads FeatureWe Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Review: I have at least two podcasts lined up and waiting to be listened to because they discuss this book and warned about spoilers, so I’m glad I finally got to it! It’s not much like anything I’ve read before, and mostly in a good way. The beginning is a little confusing, and I think some people ended up being put off by that, but I absolutely loved the middle. Rosemary is narrating her story from 2012, but is mostly discussing her freshman year of college more than a decade before. That was kind of interesting, because she entered college the same year I entered high school, so her experience was very similar but in a lot of ways totally different – technology really changed pretty quickly during that time. All you know at the beginning is that Rosemary is currently her parents’ only child in essence, but that in the past she had a sister and a brother who are no longer in the picture. As befits a freshman in college, she ends up finding herself, so to speak, confronting parts of herself she’s been repressing for years. It’s not an easy book to summarize, but I did enjoy it, and am looking forward to seeing what those podcasts have to say about it!
+20 Task (approved in thread - off The Goldfinch)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1180
15.1 (round 2) C-WA Conspiracy Of Decency: The Rescue Of The Danish Jews During World War II by Emmy E. Werner
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 1195
20.9 Respect EldersPortnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Review: I began this book basically expecting to hate it, and for the first twenty-five percent of it Roth surprised me. While it held up to my expectations of being about pretty much nothing except Alexander Portnoy’s sexual exploits, with a dash of his dad’s constipation and a large dose of Jewish guilt, at first I found it funny. Then it got monotonous. The last twenty-five percent was kind of excruciating – thank goodness it’s a short book – but I got through it. I don’t see evidence from this, though, that Roth is really as much a genius as it seems some people think – or maybe more accurately, I wish a different type of writing were seen as genius.
+20 Tasks (born 1933, still alive)
+15 Combo (10.5, 20.4, 20.6)
+5 Oldies (published 1960)
+10 Review
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 1245
10.10 Group ReadsToo Much Happiness by Alice Munro
Review:
This is the first book by Alice Munro that I've read -- but it won't be my last. Her short stories, which were set mainly in rural Canada, were varied in setting and plotline. I found them all very engaging. There wasn't a clunker in the bunch.
My favorite was probably the final story, which is also the title of the book. The story, ‘Too Much Happiness’ was a historical fiction piece about Sofia Kovalevsky who was a novelist and mathematician who lived during the last half of the 19th century. The story moves throughout Europe as we learn about Sophia’s life, work and loves. It’s an amazing story about a real woman who was a renowned mathematician in a time when women were rarely permitted to work in that field.
This book won the 2009 Man Booker International Prize, and I think that award was well-deserved.
(And as an added bonus, I already had this book on my bookshelf! Yay, one down 499 to go.)
Rating: 4 stars
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.9, 20.9 born 1931)
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 760
20.6 JewishAway by Amy Bloom
(Shelved 14 times as Jewish)
Review:
This story about Lillian Leyb’s life, set in the early to mid-1900’s, had promise that I just don’t think delivered. Lillian’s family was killed during a pogrom in Russia in the early 1900’s. She then journeys to America where she seems to float along, making a life for herself in in the Yiddish theater district in New York City. When a cousin brings word to Lillian that her young daughter, Sophie survived the slaughter in Russia and was adopted by a family who moved to Siberia, Lillian sets out on a quest to find her daughter.
I had to suspend disbelief as Lillian made her away across the US in a broom closet on a train, then stayed in Seattle for awhile with a prostitute named, Gumdrop Brown. From there she went to Alaska to attempt to walk across Alaska and then sail across the Bering Sea to Siberia to find Sophie. I wasn’t compelled to like Lillian. A lot of the gritty scenes in the book might be historically accurate for the era, but they seemed more like a loosely connected set of short stories rather than a cohesive novel. Many of the stories seemed too far-fetched for me.
I found myself thinking, “Oh brother, what now? Really?” as more and more outlandish stories were piled one on top of another as the book progressed.
Rating: 2 stars
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
+5 Combo points missed in Msg 681 - for City of Thieves - Combo w/task 20.6 This book is shelved 11 times as Jewish
Grand Total = 795
Post 676 Claire wrote: "10.5 Author AchievementsThe Lover by Marguerite Duras
Awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1989: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian......"
Claire, would you check with Jama in the 20.8 thread whether Duras qualifies for this task? I think Duras was always French, as her parents were just on "assignment" in Vietnam when she was born.
20.1 1906-1950Blood on the Forge by William Attaway (published 1941)
I hadn't even heard of this book until I saw it on the 1001 list, and I am so glad I learned about it. Blood on the Forge follows three brothers, sharecroppers in Kentucky, who leave for work in a steel mill in Pennsylvania in 1919. While the brothers are happy to leave debt peonage and the constant threat of racial violence behind, they arrive at a job where they could die any day from unsafe working conditions, and where the bosses pit the African American workers against the foreign workers (Slavs and Irish, mostly) to prevent union organizing and strikes. Attaway's writing style is superb, vividly bringing to life the harsh existence of steel mill workers with nuance and subtlety, but the story itself is brutal and several scenes of violence towards women were difficult for me to read. Nevertheless, this is an excellent novel about the Great Migration which should be more widely read.
20 pt. task
+10 review
+5 oldies (1941)
+5 Combo (20.4)
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 610
20.8 - Exiles and Emigrants:A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
+20 task
+10 non-Western
Task total: 30
RwS total: 1105
AtoZ total: 15
Grand Total: 1120
20.10 Goodreads FeatureOrfeo by Richard Powers
Wow. I don’t know what else to say. I just finished this book, wrapped in a coat and hat, sitting in my car overwhelmed with this book, because I just had to push through to the end before going upstairs. This book resisted and resisted me – I must have started and set it aside at least three times in the past six months, but once I got going, it was amazing. The first part of the amazing was the way the writing felt like music, echoing the plot and details. Some of the passages of description were just unbelievable. He describes 9/11, “a quartet of passenger planes turned the dream of the present into a greasy plume” and suddenly I could not imagine a more beautiful way to describe an unspeakably bad event. I could stop, like here, and be conscious of Richard Powers as a craftsman, but more often, I found myself pulled along at his mercy. The structure even mirrored the music he writes about, with multiple layers, shifting timelines, and patterns revealed only later in the book. And then, finally, at the very end, I remembered the title, and was hit with another wow moment. I wanted to immediately go reread the whole thing with the Orpheus myth more front and center in my mind. In fact, I do expect I’ll re-read this one, as it felt like there was just far more than I took in on the first go. Meanwhile, thanks to whoever first added it as a Group Read and to all those who recommended it!
+20 task (from The Goldfinch's page)
+5 combo (10.9 - 2014 list)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 470
From Post 674Katy wrote: "20.10 Goodreads Feature
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
I picked up this book for the author, having really enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and s..."
+5 Jumbo
From Post 664Karen Michele wrote: "20.4 - 1001
The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino
I am a real sucker for coming of age novels, so this first work by Italo Calvino was quite enjoyable readi..."
+5 Combo 10.5
From Post 681Krista wrote: "10.2 Nutcracker
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Review:
I listened to this in audiobook format during part of the time that I was reading Doris Lessing’s, [book:The..."
+5 Combo 20.3-Historical
Lagullande wrote: "10.1 - Square Peg:We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
(Lexile 600)
+10 task
I think this completes my RwS Challenge, so also claiming 100 bonus points (phew!).
+100 Rw..."
Congratulations on your RwS Finish, Lagullande!
20.4 1001Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler
What fascinated me most about this was it's publication date of 1938. The Axis of Germany and Italy had recently been established - the villain of this piece was one German in particular, and also the general fascist movement in Italy. The protagonist is an ordinary Englishman, an engineer. Not surprisingly, characterization is not the primary draw, though not just awful either. The prose is perhaps not quite literary quality, but more than acceptable. The plot and its development good.
This is one of Ambler's earlier pieces. Ambler was an early writer in the spy/thriller genre and influenced the now better known Graham Greene and John Le Carre. While I read thrillers infrequently, Eric Ambler is one I hope to turn to again.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (20.1 - 1938; 20.9 - 1909-1998)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies
Task total = 50
Grand total = 675
Task 10.8 - Two for One - Read a combination of 2 or more books, each under 100 pages, that total at least 100 pages when combined.
Most popular version: 20 pages
Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day (Johannes Cabal #1.1) (2013) by Jonathan L. Howard (Goodreads Author) (Kindle Edition, 20 pages)
Review: Cute, entertaining short story about an aspiring beginner necromancer versus enterprising sprites. This story was actually the first one in the Johannes Cabal series, and occurs before the events of The Necromancer, at a time when Johannes was a young man beginning to learn about magic. Recommended for those entertained by humorous fantasy stories.
Most popular version: 88 pages
Balfour and Meriwether in The Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs (Balfour and Meriwether .5) (2013) by Daniel Abraham (Kindle Edition, 52 pages)
Review:I've enjoyed Daniel Abraham's other stories, but this one, bleh. The great reveal towards the end had nothing to do with the "adventure tale" that the novella was advertised as being. The whole story just never came together – I suspect that happens sometimes even with wildly successful authors. (Also – I thought this would be “steampunk” genre. Nope.) Not recommended.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total : 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 545 + 20 = 565
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Reading with Style
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The 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 b..."
Sorry - yes, I meant 20.8. And thanks for noticing the combo!