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Winter 14/15 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 14/15
10.2 NutcrackerThe Heart of a Dog
**Revised**
I discovered Bulgakov at the beginning of 2014 with The Master and Margarita, so when I saw this in the bookstore I bought it without reservation. My instincts were correct, if you like surreal situations, black humor, and biting (pun intended) satire then this is a nice introduction to Bulgakov. The book itself is short and to the point, but that doesn't mean it is lacking in memorable situations. One of the things I like about his writing is how adept he is at creating a very vivid scene without belaboring it. The basic premise of the story is a "Frankenstein" type experiment (a dog/human being), with obvious parallels to the political situation of the time.
I'm a fan of his writing, and I would recommend this book (5 stars!).
+10 task
+5 oldie
+10 non-western
+10 review
task total 25
running total 45
10.3 1980aThe Remains of the Day
+10 task
+5 island dreams (England/UK)
+5 oldie
+5 exiles + emmigrants (Ishiguro born in Japan, lives in UK)
task total 25
running total 70
10.7 Black humorAnimal Farm
+10 task
+5 island dreams (England/UK)
+5 oldie
task total 20
running total 100
Welcome, Valerie! Your format looks pretty good - it's very helpful if you will also include a link to the author in your post.Our definition of non-western, might seem a bit strange so that Sweden doesn't qualify for non-western. Non-western includes Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia (which includes Russia & all former USSR countries).
Please don't feel singled out by my post, we are very glad to have everyone here - the complexity of our challenges is bit confusing - sometimes even to the veterans!
20.2 PersephoneThe Courilof Affair
+20 task
+5 nutcracker (Russian)
+5 rws anniversary (1933)
+5 oldie
+5 exile + emmigrants (lived in Paris)
+10 non-western (Russian)
task total 50
running total 170
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: 68 pages
Told After Supper (1891) by Jerome K. Jerome (Paperback, 48 pages)
Review:I picked this novelette to read because: it was available from Dodo Press; and, I’ve read Three Men in a Boat and found it to be amusing in that very 19th Century British way. This novelette contains several very short, humorous Christmas Eve ghost stories.. Our privileged young adult male narrators are busily drinking whisky whilst telling the stories. The author believes adds to the humor. Recommended to fans of humorous ghost stories (and fans of P. G. Wodehouse).
Most popular version: 68 pages
May Day (1920) by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Paperback, 94 pages)
Review:This was one of the first published works by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The time frame is less than 24 hours; the place is New York City; and the characters include soldiers (recently returned from World War I), socialists, flappers and working people. Recommended.
+10 Task (#10.8 pagecount <100 pages)
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1864-1938)
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 230 + 30 = 260
10.1 - Square PegThe Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
+ 10 Task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 210
Yes I did mean 20.4---thanks. I'll change it.Kate S wrote: "Ashley wrote: "20.8 Exiles and Emmigrants
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
+20 Task (born in UK; settled in USA)
+10 Combo (20.1-p. 1932; 20.6)
+10 Oldies (p. 1932)
Task..."
"Elizabeth (Alaska Welcome, Valerie! Your format looks pretty good - it's very helpful if you will also include a link to the author in your post...."Thanks for the help, Elizabeth! I don't feel singled out, I expected that I would do something wrong! ha, ha... I did read the rules for non-western, but obviously it didn't stick in my head.
I see that I added up the Couriloff Affair incorrectly, so I've corrected that (I had 40, but it was actually 50). Because of that the net effect is my running total is still 170.
Valerie wrote: "I see that I added up the Couriloff Affair incorrectly, so I've corrected that (I had 40, but it was actually 50). Because of that the net effect is my running total is still 170. "Next time we do scorekeeping, Kate will be posting totals. You may or may not be due more points - so check then to see that you agree! Again, welcome!
(Forgot to mention when you post combos, that you should include the task # too, so we don't have to think as hard. ;-))
10.2 - Nutcracker:Purge by Sofi Oksanen (takes place mostly in Estonia, with bits in Russia and Latvia and only about 5-10% of the book is set in Berlin)
Review:
"Purge" is a novel by Sofi Oksanen, a young Finnish writer whose mother is Estonian. I read the Estonian translation, which was ridiculously good - if I wouldn't have known it was a translation, I would have assumed it was written in Estonian. There were none of the mistranslations, slightly out of place words or other things that usually alert a reader to the fact that they're reading a translation. Or maybe it seems that way because the book is about Estonia, my country, my people, my history and all the thousand familiar things.
It's not easy to write a review of this novel. There was just too much going on, too many levels to the story that spanned from the 1930s to early 1990s. One could look at the narrative from the perspective of the individuals and the choices they make in life, from the perspective of the country and how war and events outside the control of a small nation affected it deeply, from the perspective of how war and occupation affect women.
The story is set in two very dramatic periods in Estonian history: the late 1930s to early 1950s, which saw the country in turmoil due to WWII and the Soviet and Nazi occupation, and the early 1990s, with Estonia regaining independence and being thrown from communism to capitalism almost overnight. There are two main characters, Aliide, an elderly woman living alone in a farm, whose youth we can read about when she's remembering about her past, and Zara, a young Russian-Estonian woman whose life, as it turns out, isn't so much different from Aliide's. As the story unfolds, going back and forth in time and being told from the perspective of both of the women, we find out how they are connected.
The book is about shame, about how things sometimes happen to people that scar them for life and it's as if all the decisions they make for the rest of their life stem from that shame and all they can ever do is try to make sure nobody ever finds out. That seems to become the new life goal: to prevent anyone from finding out.
It's about love, but the wrong kind of love: love that consumes and wants to possess, rather than wish well to the object of it. It's love that makes one do things they perhaps wouldn't normally do. It's love that can only end badly.
It's about people at times of war, foreign military occupation, unrest and sudden change of a political system. Times like that bring out heroes and villains, they seem to bring out the worst in people and the best. Some people have always used difficult times to take advantage of others and to abuse them in order to get ahead in life. Other people try to save as many as they can and to protect those who are worse off than they are. It's also about how times like that sometimes rob you of any good alternatives and all you are faced with are bad decisions and actions that have negative and life-altering consequences for someone you care about.
This novel is very much about women. They are at the centre here. The two main characters are both women, and a lot of what happens is about how women live in a man's world, how men use and abuse women for their own purposes. Times may change the forms of the abuse, but it never completely goes away. The men in the book are mainly described in relation to the women.
The book was not easy and happy reading, because way too many very painful and horrible things happen to the main characters, even if some of the worst ones are never described, only hinted at. The motivations of the characters are very complex and it's difficult, if not impossible, to say who is the protagonist here and who is the antagonist. It's not easy reading, but very compelling and the book is hard to put down.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 65
20.10Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
+20 task
+10 oldies (1865)
task total: 30
grand total: 240
20.3 HistoricalRestoration by Rose Tremain
Review:
This was historical comedic fiction. The main character was surprisingly interesting and developed over the course of the book in a believable and lovable way from a shallow court onlooker to a more thoughtful adult. The historical setting was believable and detailed and made the book thoroughly enjoyable. Reading about the medical beliefs of the time was particularly interesting and I think the author did a fair job keeping with the beliefs appropriate for the setting (e.g., whether or not spontaneous generation was a valid theory). The reader for the audiobook tried a little too hard to create voices, which sometimes actually made the characters hard to understand or annoying to listen to rather than merely differentiated. Still, I'm glad to have read this one. It's my final audiobook of 2014!
+20 Task (was #198 when I picked it - see help thread)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.10, 20.10)
+5 Oldies (1989)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 175
20.8 - Exiles and EmmigrantsStation Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Because this was a book with a lot of buzz, I didn’t read a lot about it before reading it. I expected to enjoy it, because I have remained a fan of dystopian stories despite the large number of YA dystopia I have read as a just retired high school librarian. I had to wait out a long list of holds at the library and sometimes my enthusiasm for a book wanes during that process, but it came in at a good time and I was still eager to get under its covers. When I actually began reading, though, I was amazed at the unusual and stellar writing and plotting of the book. It was much more nuanced than I expected and didn’t dwell on world building, yet still built an understanding of life in the new societies in a subtle way. Pieces of the puzzle of the lives of the survivors were withheld as the story moved back and forth in time keeping my nose in the book. The Shakespeare connections and the idea of the traveling orchestra also kept me entranced. It was a wonderful reading experience and a fantastic way to end 2014 and begin 2015!
+20 Task: Author born and raised in Canada, now US
+ 5 Combo: 20.10 - Goodreads Feature
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 500
20.4 - 1001The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
+ 20 task
+10 oldies (1905)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 240
I'm only now realizing I can claim a task more than once so I'm going back and claiming the other books I read in December that qualify.
10.4 Island DreamsOpen Swimmer, Anby Tim Winton
Finally getting around to checking off my December reads against the challenges.
I borrowed this as an audiobook, and I have to say that the Australian accent left me struggling with engagement ( yes, I am an Aussie, but that doesn't mean the accent can be any less harsh in my ears ! ). I could hear the poetry in the words, but they just didn't sound poetic, and I really felt that I would have engaged with the story more if I had read it myself.
The cast of characters is relatively small, and there is obviously a theme of madness between them. There is a violence too, in emotion and response, which is sometimes shocking.
+ 10 task
+ 10 review
+ 5 Oldie ( first published 1982 )
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 25
20.9 Respect Elders The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle ( Lexile 860 )
I have to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the 5 previous books I had read of L'Engle's, being the Time Quintet. This one seemed a lot more of a straightforward narrative, with a moral lesson or two thrown in, and not so much of the scientific, religious and philosophical discussion that I had come to enjoy in her other works.
The characters were as well written and likable, or not as the case required, but you knew, particularly if familiar with the O'Keefe parents, which way the story would go, and any twists were not overly surprising.
+ 10 task
+ 10 review
+ 5 Oldie ( first published 1965 )
Task Total: 25
Grand Total : 50
20.9 Respect Elders :3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
+20 task (born1917, died 2008)
+5 combo (20.8 – born UK, lived in Sri Lanka/Ceylon)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 540
10.1 Square PegThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green ( Lexile 850 )
I probably wouldn't have read this if I hadn't enjoyed Looking for Alaska so much. Too many people I knew had recently read it, too many people I knew had cried, and then there was the cancer factor.
I did really like the way the cancer was dealt with. Green gives the characters an honesty about living with their illness, and their perspectives on the people around, and not around, them. It was refreshing to read characters with such a strong sense of self and reality in the face of such difficulty. And not have every other character pander to them.
I still don't get how a blind kid can play computer games, even if it is badly, but I guess that is why this is fiction, huh ? ;)
+ 10 task
+ 10 review
Task Total : 20
Grand Total : 70
Karen Michele wrote: "20.8 - Exiles and EmmigrantsStation Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Because this was a book with a lot of buzz, I didn’t read a lot about it before reading it. I..."
Am ordering it from my library now based on this review. Have read a lOT of dystopian fiction in the last 12 months, and haven't found one I have disliked yet, regardless of how different they have been. That said, your review has me excited :)
10.4 Island DreamsMagic of the Angels by Jacqueline Rayner
Review: The 11th Doctor and the Ponds are on a tourist trip through London. It's a very entertaining QuickRead featuring the creepy Weeping Angels. Thanks to the Angels the reader gets a glimpse into 1945's London, too. The story includes not only Doctor Who history, but real history too.
+10 task (entirely in London)
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 85
20.5 - Mystery WomenThe Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
Amelia Peabody is a great detective story heroine! I enjoy the humor and friendly personal and professional competition between her and her husband. The mysteries are good and I read quickly through The Curse of the Pharaoh, my second read from Elizabeth Peter’s series. I also love the setting and the archaeology. I have always been drawn to the sections of museums where I can see the mummies and artifacts of that lost world. I personally would not have thought leaving my children behind to travel to another part of the world was a good thing to do, but, with that said, I think I laughed out loud the most at those beginning chapters of the book. I wasn’t as absorbed in the mystery itself, but still will be excited to continue on with the series when the next opportunity arises to fit it into my reading schedule. Clever writing and characterizations keep me interested in the books.
+20 Task: on list
+ 5 Combo: 20.9 Respect Elders 1927-2013
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1981)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 540
Valerie wrote: "10.2 NutcrackerThe Heart of a Dog
I discovered Bulgakov at the beginning of 2014 with The Master and Margarita, so when I saw this in the bookstore I bought it without reservatio..."
Welcome to RwS, Valerie. This review is a little short (81 words) could you give us a bit more? When you do, this post will be worth 35 points (not 25 as currently posted).
Amanda wrote: "20.9 Respect Elders The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle ( Lexile 860 )
I have to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the 5 previous books I had rea..."
Amanda, task 20.9 is worth 20 points, not the 10 you have claimed. So +10. :)
Valerie wrote: "10.2 NutcrackerThe Heart of a Dog
+10 task
+10 non-western
+10 review"
Valerie wrote: "20.2 PersephoneThe Courilof Affair
+20 task
+5 nutcracker (Russian)
+5 rws anniversary (1933)
+5 exile + emmigrants (lived in Paris)
+10 non-western (Russian)
task tota..."
Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.8 Two for OneChristianity And Democracy by Jacques Maritain and John F. Kennedy: The Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy
These two..."
+5 Oldies (1987)
Valerie wrote: "10.2 NutcrackerThe Heart of a Dog
I discovered Bulgakov at the beginning of 2014 with The Master and Margarita, so when I saw this in the bookstore I bought it without reservatio..."
+5 Combo (20.1-first published 1925)
Valerie wrote: "10.3 1980aThe Remains of the Day
+10 task
+5 island dreams (England/UK)
+5 oldie
+5 exiles + emmigrants (Ishiguro born in Japan, lives in UK)
task total 25
running total 70"
+10 Combo (20.3, 20.4-listed on both of these lists)
Valerie wrote: "10.7 Black humorAnimal Farm
+10 task
+5 island dreams (England/UK)
+5 oldie
task total 20
running total 100"
+10 Combo 20.4-1001, 20.1-pub 1945
Valerie wrote: "20.1 RwS Anniversary!Ethan Frome
+20 task
+10 oldie (1911 pub.)
task total 30
running total 130"
+10 Combo 20.4, 20.8
Heather wrote: "20.10Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
+20 task
+10 oldies (1865)
task total: 30
grand total: 240"
Heather, I do not see this listed in the help thread, can you give me a hint as to which list you found it listed?
Kate S wrote: "Heather wrote: "20.10Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
+20 task
+10 oldies (1865)
task total: 30
grand total: 240"
Heather, I do not see this listed in t..."
I'm sorry I didn't look earlier, Kate. I can see this on the Wizard of Oz via the arrows, and you can count it for 20.10.
Tuyen wrote: "20.4 - 1001The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
+ 20 task
+10 oldies (1905)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 240
I'm only now realizing I can claim a task more than once so ..."
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.8)
20.5 - Mystery WomenThe Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
+ 20 task
+ 10 oldies (1903)
+ 10 combo (20.3 and 20.9 author was 82)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 315
Kate S wrote: "Amanda wrote: "20.9 Respect Elders The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle ( Lexile 860 )
I have to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the 5 previous ..."
Thanks Kate, been so hot here the last couple of days that the brain has been barely functioning !
20.4 - 1001To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 12/16/14
This book is #456 on the linked list.
Review:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was a bit of a surprise to me. I’d never read the book before, but had watched the movie on television many years ago. All I had recalled of that was the trial, yet there was so much more going on in the book than that! Harper Lee’s words drew a picture of the South at that time that included the good and the bad. The relationship between the characters seemed as if we were reading a true story, rather than a work of fiction. I listened to the audio version read by Sissy Spacek, whom I felt did an excellent job of narration. I highly recommend it.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.9 author born 1926)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1960)
Task total: 40
AtoZ total: 0
RwS total: 195
Grand Total: 195
Task 20.9 – Respect Elders- Read a book by an author who lived at least 80 years.
Dorothy Gilman
Born: in The United States : ON: June 25, 1923
Died: February 02, 2012
Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish (Mrs Pollifax #9) (1990) by Dorothy Gilman (Hardcover, 211 pages)
Review: A nice, sweet grandmother, Mrs. Pollifax, is also a CIA agent. She’s successful because opposing intelligence agents never suspect that a nice, sweet grandmother could also be a spy. In this installment, she is sent to Morocco, with the task of determining which of 1 of the 7 CIA informants is the imposter sending the CIA bad information. I suspect that *real* CIA operations do not operate the way this novel describes them operating. This novel is more the fluffy, Angela Lansbury Murder She Wrote kind of story. There’s travelogue, a short history lesson, and the satisfaction of reading about a grandmotherly lady rescue traditional James Bond spies from peril. Oh, and there is also a “whirling dervish”, a religious Sufi Muslim, who allies with our heroine, Mrs. Pollifax. Recommended for a fluffy read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 260 + 30 = 290
20.5 - Mystery Women:Murder in the Marais by Cara Black
Aimee Leduc is a private investigator that specializes in financial/technical crimes until she is guilt-tripped into an investigation by a friend of her deceased father. What appeared to be a simple photograph search becomes a murder case with deep roots in France's Nazi-occupation past and far-reaching repercussions in the present.
It was a better than expected mystery that was perfect for a plane ride. Admittedly, I had low expectations -- some of the summaries I read mentioned dwarfs and ghosts. Luckily there was no paranormal phenomena and the dwarf is not circus-y (he just happens to be a little person that is very good with computers).
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 75
20.7 - 18th Century PlusA Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
While a very slim volume, this is not a quick read. The protagonist loses the high ground in a heated discussion, because he couldn't back his claims on personal authority. So, spur of the moment, he decides to travel the continent in order to gain personal insight to the other countries. The book is composed of a series of episodes relayed with comic exaggeration with some digressions to other anecdotes, as the narrator is a single, traveler in foreign countries and he does get into a few scrapes. This was the last novel written by Sterne and although it was published in his lifetime, it ends abruptly, in the middle of a joke. An odd little book, it is probably funnier than I found it to be.
+20 task
+10 review
+15 oldies (1768)
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 120
20.7 - 18th Century PlusLove in Excess by Eliza Haywood
What a delightful, unique novel! The novel is comprised of three sections, which are almost complete stories. In the first part, the protagonist Alovisa falls in love with the charming D'Elmont. As a woman in 18th century Paris, social etiquette forbids her from indicating her interest (until after he proposes!). So Alovisa sends him an anonymous flirtatious note. At the next ball D'Elmont, meets and begins to court Amena. With the help of devious servants and unfortunate circumstances, eventually D'Elmont is convinced to marry. I the second part, D'Elmont, now married, falls hopelessly in love with a young women of whom he is a legal guardian. The marriage quickly become an unhappy one with a jealous wife manuovering to discover her rival and the husband plotting his seduction. Hijinks ensue, resulting in tragedy for all concerned. In the final section, D'Elmont is in Italy, where once again several woman fall madly in love with him and even more hijinks ensue.
While the plots are operatic in scope and almost laugh-out-loud ridiculous, many of the female characters were developed into something more than stereotyped temptresses and convent girls (some were caricatures designed to move the convoluted plots forward). For some reason, I expected the novel to be Alovisa's story and so it felt quite disjointed in the reading. The other major drawback is the complete lack of chapters or line-breaks, making it hard to read in short sessions as it is hard to pick up the story line again. Other than those minor complaints, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.
+20 task
+10 review
+20 oldies (1719)
Task total: 50
Grand Total: 170
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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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10.1 Square peg
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
+10 task
+10 non-western (Swedish author)
task total 20
running total 20