Reading with Style discussion
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WI 20-21 Completed Tasks
15.10 Name of the GameThree Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Square 1E - letter R - series has letter "R" (Three men)
Square 3D - letter A - MPG adventure
Square 6D - letter N - title has a number
Square 7B- letter G - no "g" in author's name
Word = RANG
+45 Task
+5 Published 1996 or before
Task Total: 50
Finisher bonuses:
Completion: 100 points
Using 3 or more 4 letter words: 100 points for six words: DIRT, LINT, HEEL, DISH, SITE, RANG
Season Total: 255 + 250 = 505
15.8 Name of the GameRound 2
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (George Smiley #3) by John le Carré
Square 8C - letter W - "Who" in title
Square 5C - letter I - "In" in title
Square 13B - letter T - author born in 1931
Word: WIT
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,070
15.9 – Name of the GameThe Guest List
E8 - Winner - 2020 winner for Mystery/thriller
E9 - Set in Ireland
C10 - MPG: thriller
WIT
Task total = 30
Points total = 345
10.8 Lunar2009
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a contemporary science fiction novel that falls in the ‘biopunk’ genre.
It is set in the near(ish) future, maybe 200 years hence. The oil driven economy has collapsed, the world has contracted, climate change has changed the landscape (although not described in full), and genetic modification has changed everything as we know it. “Calorie” companies rule – they own the GMO crops and if countries don’t want their people to starve they have to make a deal with the devil. Along the way, complementing the crop genetic modification there are of course genetically altered crop pests (fungal, viral and insects). Some of these modified pests have made the jump to become infectious to humans.
The story takes place in Bangkok, where the seat of the contracted Kingdom of Thailand has retreated to. We first view this city through the eyes of a ‘calorie man’ spy, Anderson, who has come to find out how the Thais have managed to revive various fruits and vegetables and where the scientist and his seed bank are. (They have refused to deal with the Calorie companies.) Through him we meet many other characters, including a Chinese refugee from Malaysia, and a ‘windup girl’, who is a lab grown ‘New Person”. She was developed in a lab in Japan by mixing human DNA with other species (depending on what trait was desired) and creche raised, but now abandoned in Bangkok when her owner went back to Japan.
It is a very complex story that is a bit slow to start. Bacigalupi has to do quite a bit of world building, which I think is why drags at first. However, the characters are interesting and he develops them in a believable manner. This is not a nice world, and most people are not exactly as they seem. The level of corruption and poverty is staggering. Bacigalupi depicts the few white characters in such a way that harkens back to Conrad or Maugham in their tropical colonial novels (which believe me is not flattering). The climax of the story doesn’t arrive until nearly the ¾ mark, but boy is it worth it! I could not and did not predict any of the action or really what would happen to any of the characters. 4.5*
10 task
10 review
15 prize
_____
15
Running total: 635
15.4 Name of the GameThe Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
Square 3B- Letter A- Set in a country starting with Letter A - Australia
Square 7B - Letter G- Author name has no letter G
Square 14C - Letter Y - One of the author's names ends in Y
Word: GAY
+15 Task
Grand Total: 210 pts
15.9 Name of the GamePlease see message 534 where I changed the word. Thanks.
Downton Abbey: The Complete Scripts, Season Three by Julian Fellowes
7D - Letter N - Title has a number (all forms)
10B- Letter I - Set on an island (United Kingdom)
16C - Letter L - Page count over 400 (558)
9D - Letter E - Wild Card! (Can be used for any letter of the alphabet)
Word: NILE
Task: 30
Season Total: 865
10.4 ValentineThe Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Lisa Wingate again demonstrates that she is a wonderful storyteller in "The Book of Lost Friends." Slave families who had been separated and sold on the auction block wanted to reconnect after the Civil War. They placed advertisements in the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a Methodist newspaper. Preachers read the ads from the pulpit on Sundays hoping to reach the missing family members. The book separates every chapter with a real "Lost Friends" example, and the reader can feel the heartache of the former slaves looking for their loved ones.
In the 1875 timeline of the story, Hannie Gossett, a freed slave and sharecropper, searches for her family members. She's also looking for legal papers from William Gossett showing that she and others have earned ownership of the land they farmed for ten years. She's accompanied by Gossett's two daughters who would be in desperate straits without their inheritance papers. Dressed as young men, they make a dangerous trip from Louisiana to Texas.
Another timeline is set in 1987 Louisiana. Benny Silva has just started her first teaching job in an underfunded rural high school with many minority students. She is unable to interest her challenging students until they start on a project looking into the history of their families. Many of them have a connection in some way to the Gossett plantation. Nathan Gossett provides them with books and historical information. However some of his relatives do not want family secrets to be uncovered.
The two timelines are woven together nicely, and both kept my interest. Benny tells her student an old proverb that says, "We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name." Author Lisa Wingate is helping to keep the stories of the Lost Friends alive so we can be aware of their lives, and how their experiences affected later generations. "The Book of Lost Friends" is compelling historical fiction with interesting characters.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 340
10.9 The Fifth SeasonThe Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
Review
I finished this book on 9 January and I’m still trying to figure it all out. The beginning seemed straight forward. Elevators are the greatest thing even above sliced bread and if it weren’t for them, we’d still be living in the dark ages on the ground. An inspector is a government job with a lot of prestige. In order to become one you must go to a special school just about elevators. The exams are extremely difficult and include knowing the most trivial and arcane facts about them as well as metaphysical ideas like at what rate the doors open on first elevators and an elevator producers essential philosophy about them. Out there, but that’s what this genre is about, right? Then there are two schools of thought. The conservative traditional thought known as Empiricists who believe every problem is structural or mechanical and the “new age” thought called Intuitionists that believe they can speak to the elevator though meditation and by intuition to find out why they are acting the way they do. Elevators are pretty much the religion of this place so a card carrying inspector is like a priest and its all highly competitive as the two groups put up candidates to be the head of the inspectors at election time and there is so much power involved in this position, I would liken it to being pope.
Election time is coming and the two parties are holding rallies and propagandizing the masses and throws mud at opponent and even sabotages their opponent’s elevator inspectors that agree with the opposite school of thought. (hmmmm …. This sounds so very familiar)
Add to this the racial conflicts that are very overt and the protagonist is the first black female inspector and she’s Intuitionist that makes her a triple target. Her work is sabotaged. Then comes the tricky part, was it done by the opponent’s faction, her own faction or the elevator had a mind of its own? There are more twists I won’t go into but it’s a combo mystery, political farce, race themes, sci fi, magical realism and feminist lit.
Its hard to rate it since I’m chewing like cud, so I just gave a middle of the line rating.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (20.1,20.3)
Task Total - 30 pts
Season Total - 660 pts
Task 10.9 The Fifth Season (Ann's Task) Read one of the top 100 books from: ReadPOC Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color.
On January 19, 2021: #61 on list
Iron Cast (2016) by Destiny Soria (Goodreads Author) (Young Adult) (Hardcover, 378 pages)
No Lexile Score for this YA novel. I think it would be 800L-1000L range, but no score means no score, so no “styles” for this post.
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 220 + 10 = 230
10.4 - ValentineSouthern Peach Pie and a Dead Guy by A. Gardner
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 345
10.4 - ValentineStill Beating by Jennifer Hartmann
+10 task
+5 Combo - 10.3
Task total: 15
Grand total: 360
15.9 - Name of the GameThe Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
Square 15B - letter L - literature map - Agatha Christie
Square 16E - letter E - 8 or more characters
Square 4E - letter D - double trouble - double "OO" and "LL"
Word - LED
+30 task
Task total: 30
Grand total: 390
15.10 - Name of the GameThe Ruin by Dervla McTiernan
Square 7C - letter G - Goodreads author
Square9E - letter I - set in Ireland
Square 6E - letter N - new to me author
Word - GIN
+45 task
+100 Bonus
Task total: 145
Grand total: 545
10.3 - WinterThe Creek Killer: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller by Dominika Best
+10 task
+5 Combo - 10.4
Task total: 15
Grand total: 570
20.9 Nieces (Kate S's Task)Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill
+20 Task (297 shelvings)
+10 Combo (10.4 H, 10.8 2009)
Points this post: 30
RwS total: 210
NoTG total: -
Season Total: 210
10.1 .... 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 .... .... 10.10
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
.... 20.2 .... .... .... .... .... .... 20.9 20.10
20.5 AfricaCry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Lexile 860
Middle-aged Reverend Stephen Kumalo, in charge of a small impoverished parish in rural South Africa, goes to Johannesburg for the first time in his life to look for his younger sister and his son, both of whom have fallen into bad company in the corrupt and violent city. What he discovers is a tragedy.
This book tells a sorrowful story of life for black people in South Africa under white rule. It was published in 1948, and was groundbreaking at the time, alerting the world to the terrible conditions in both city and countryside. (And then not much changed for another 40 years.) It’s not an easy read, but very rewarding.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
+ 5 Prizeworthy
Task total: 40
Season Total: 635
20.10 Grand MasterHand in Glove by Ngaio Marsh
Snobbish Percival Pyke Period has allowed a friend, retired lawyer Harold Cartell, to share his house, but the arrangement is not working out. Mr Cartell’s dog is causing trouble all over the village, and the servants are about to give notice. Add in another eight or ten characters with a mixed bag of tangled relationships, and the reader is not surprised when someone is found dead in a ditch. “Handsome Alleyn” with his faithful Inspector Fox is brought in from Scotland Yard to investigate.
This is a late Ngaio Marsh, published in the 1960s, but it had all the ingredients of a traditional Golden Age mystery and was exactly what I needed for a comfort read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
Task total: 35
Season Total: 670
10.9 The Fifth Season (Ann's Task)Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction are not genres I usually enjoy...but of course there are always exceptions. I also had hopes for this one when I noticed that the story was based on a Senegalese folktale. The first part of this novel had me interested... a gluttonous husband returns to the wife who has separated from him....causing all kinds of problems. Then things get weird. The wife comes into possession of a "chaos stick". The creatures that lost the powerful stick...want it back. I realized I had lost interest in the story when I couldn't keep straight the different fantasy beings- djombis and trackers...as well as "Sisters" who are apparently humans with super-powers. I was lost. Thank god the author's epilogue quasi-explains the fable at the end. Just two stars.
Task=10
Review=10
combo= 5 (10.4)
Prizes=15
Task Total=40
Grand Total= 550
10.1; ....; 10.3; ....; 10.5; ....; 10.7; ....; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5; 15.6; 15.7
....; 20.2; .....; .....; .....; .....; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; .....;
10.6 NotableRead a book from the NYT Notable Books from 2010-2019.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer from the 2014 list (last entry).
Former points (with added points from the mod which I missed) -- 520
Task Points = 10
Award Winner Bonus = +10 (Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award winner)
Total Points So Far = 540
15.9 Name of the GameRound 2
Elsa Goody, Bushranger by Darry Fraser
Square 13E - letter T - Character's name, Elsa Goody, in title
Square 1C - letter R - MPG: Romance
Square 14C - letter Y - author's first name ends in Y
Word: TRY
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,100
10.5 AuthorWriters & Lovers by Lily King
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10. 6 Notable
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 385
20.4 ScienceThe Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 Valentine's
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 420
20.9 Nieces (Kate S's Task)The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
+20 Task
+10 Combo: 10.4 Valentine's / 10.5 Author
Task Total: 30
Rws Finish: 100
Season Total: 550
From Post 460Ed wrote: "10.5 Author
The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre
I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel. Like one of my favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo, this novel features a..."
+5 Combo 10.6
From Post 476Anika wrote: "20.7 Lifetime
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
It's always a difficult thing to read the first-hand accounts of former slaves...even h..."
+5 Combo 10.3
20.10 Grand Master (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie
4.0/5.0 - An Agatha Christie mystery set in ancient Egypt with no detective, so a departure from her normal style, yet it was quite fascinating and well written. I admit I didn't suspect the killer, with all the red herrings thrown in. This standalone mystery offers historical details into everyday life in Egypt, in the household of a ka priest and his family. There are three sons and a daughter, along with a new concubine, his mother, a faithful servant and some scribes; half of this cast will be dead by the end of the novel. Who is the killer? One by one, each suspect is killed, until at the end, only the killer remains.
+20 - task
+10 - review
Task total - 30
Season total - 895
...; 10.2; 10.3; ....;10.5; ....; ....; ....; .....; .....
15.1; 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1; 20.2; .....; 20.4; .....; 20.6; 20.7;.....; .....; .20.10
Hi Kate,I have my total at 520 but the latest Readerboard says 515. No big deaI, but I can't find where I messed up. Thanks.
20.2 JazzLive by Night by Dennis Lehane
This 1920s/1930s mob book is far outside of my usual reading picks, but I really enjoyed this story. I had in my head that this would be a mystery, but it's more of a period piece and crime book. The main character is involved in low-level crime, then rises in gangster hierarchy to greater and greater control of rum-running (during Prohibition) as well as other rackets. The author does a great job bringing the era to life as the characters travel from Boston to Tampa to Cuba.
The narrator for the audiobook captured the tone well and made this relatively long book a pleasure to listen to.
+20 Task (set 1926-1935)
+10 Review
+10 Awards
+5 Combo (10.3)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 440
**15.9 Name of the GameDownton Abbey: The Complete Scripts, Season Three by Julian Fellowes
7D - Letter N - Title has a number (all forms)
10B- Letter I - Set on an island (United Kingdom)
16C - Letter L - Page count over 400 (558)
Word: NIL
Task: 30
Season Total: 865 (currently 895)
**This is an edit of the original message 507. I discovered I didn't need to use my wildcard, since I could form a 3 letter word without it.
15.1 Name of the Game, Round 2Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
1B--Letter R--+10K Ratings
13E--Letter T--Title contains a character's name
14B--Letter Y--Setting: Italy
16B--Letter E--Author born in Europe
Word: TYRE
+15 Task
+5 Not Fiction
+5 Pre-'96 pub.
Task total: 25
Season total: 735
15.2 Name of the Game, Round 2The Saga of the Volsungs by Anonymous
5D--Letter I--Author name has no "I"
6B--Letter N--Not a Novel
10D--Letter T--Translated
11E--Letter H--Highly rated: 5 stars from Lisa
Word: THIN
+15 Task
+5 Not Fiction
+5 Pre-'96 pub.
Task total: 25
Season total: 760
15.3 Name of the Game, Round 2The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
1C--Letter R--MPG: Romance
2B--Letter E--Author name has 2+ "E"s
6D--Letter N--Title has a number
13D--Letter T--Title word: to, too, TWO
Word: RENT
+15 Task
+5 Not Fiction
+5 Pre-'96 pub
Task total: 25
Season total: 785
15.4 Name of the Game, Round 2I'll Have What She's Having: My Adventures in Celebrity Dieting by Rebecca Harrington
2D--Letter E--+8 Word title
7C--Letter G--Goodreads author
10B--Letter T--Pub'd in teens (2015)
Word: GET
+15 Task
+5 Not Fiction
Task total: 20
Season total: 805
15.5 Name of the Game, Round 2Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest
4E--Letter D--Double consecutive letter in author name
5C--Letter I--Title word: IN, inn, into
6E--Letter N--New to you author
Word: DIN
+20 Task
+5 Not Fiction
Task total: 25
Season total: 830
15.6 Name of the Game, Round 2Obit by Victoria Chang
11D--Letter H--Hot off the presses (7 April 2020)
12B--Letter S--75-199 page count (120 pages)
16D--Letter E--Title has no "E"
Word: SHE
+20 Task
+5 Not Fiction
Task total: 25
Season total: 855
15.7 Name of the Game, Round 2High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
9D--Letter I--Title word: eye, HIGH, cry, die, sky, lie, by
10E--Letter T--Title has no "the"
11C--Letter H--One of author's names starts with "H"
Word: HIT
+20 Task
+5 Pre-'96 pub (1995)
Task total: 25
Season total: 880
15.8 Name of the Game, Round 2The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
7B--Letter G--Author name has no "G"
15B--Letter L--Lit Map, Richard Russo
16E--Letter E--Novel has 8+ named characters
Word: LEG
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 910
20.2 JazzThe Book of Salt by Monique Truong
If ever a book could be called non-linear, this is it. I always believed Binh told his first person story from the present, or about 1934, and in Paris. Binh is cook for GertrudeStein and Miss Toklas as he calls them. They are not always present, but they are there and, through him, we come to know them while he tells his own story.
This is not unlike those books that take place in one day where you also learn all of the backstory. The location and time changed - his early days in Paris in the mid-20s; as a child or a young adult in Vietnam; a young man aboard a freighter. I have laid them out as if that is the order they appear in the novel. There is almost no order to the novel. Although it didn't take much to figure out the place and usually the time period where his story unfolds. Sometimes the second person creeped in and I was nearly lost. I had to pay close attention!
With only about 60 pages to read today, I awoke thinking about what I might say about this novel. Binh is bitter about his heretofore short life, even cynical to some extent. I wanted to tell him about a conversation I had with my mother over 40 years ago about something I'd read. Happiness isn't always in getting what you like, but in liking what you get. Yeah, I know those things are only occasionally the same thing, but we're talking about happiness, an attitude. Binh, I wanted to say, you need to think about that.
I began to get tired of his attitude and what I'd hoped would be a fantastic read became one I hardly looked forward to finishing. As I started putting some thoughts together, I reminded myself that I don't always have to like the character to like the novel. Well! Take a dose of your own medicine, Elizabeth. It then occurred to me that Truong has written a characterization so real that I was starting to give him advice. Maybe this is better than I'd been thinking. Yes, it is. But I continued to find his attitude tiresome over those last 60 pages. This morning I had hopes that I would convince myself it is more than a 3-star read. I still think it isn't, but I'll wager it sits in the top 1% of that group and on another day might flop over into the 4-star group.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 10.5)
+15 Prize Worthy
Task total = 55
Season total = 530
15.9 Name of the Game, Round 2All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother by Danielle Teller
1D--Letter R--Retelling
4B--Letter D--Debut novel
9B--Letter I--Set on an island (England)
Word: RID
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 940
15.10 Name of the Game, Round 2Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
1E--Letter R--Series name includes "R" (Wayward Children)
8D--Letter U--Wild card
12C--Letter S--Series #4-7 (#5)
15E--Letter L--MPG: LGBT
Word: SLUR
+45 Task
Task total: 45
+100 Completion bonus
+100 4-letter word bonus (tyre, thin, rent, slur)
Season total: 1185
10.4 Valentine'sB is for Burglar by Sue Grafton
3.0/5.0 - The second book in the Kinsey Millhone series was written more than 35 years ago. Does it stand the test of time? Part of what kept me reading this was compiling a list of at least 20 things that existed back then that we no longer do, use or deem acceptable behavior. For example, Kinsey, a Private Eye, keeps her case notes on index cards, and writes her reports on a typewriter. All of her clients smoke in public buildings, and some even wear real fur coats. She uses paper maps to navigate when she drives and a travel agent to book a routine flight. A big portable tv is one with a 25" screen, and telephone books and credit files on microfiche are essential tools to get information. To be honest, the mystery almost took a backseat to revisiting this blast from the past.
Task +10
Review +10
Combo (10.8 & 20.10) +10
Prize - Anthony Award for Best Novel (1986), Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover (1986) +10
Task total - 40
Season total - 935
...; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; ....; ....; ....; .....; .....
15.1; 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1; 20.2; .....; 20.4; .....; 20.6; 20.7;.....; .....; .20.10
10.9 The fifth Season The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
No Lexile
+10 Task
Task total = 10
Season Total: 665
15.6 Name of the GameHeavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood
Square 10E - letter T– title has no ‘the’
Square 5D - letter I – author name has no “I”
Square 2B - letter E– author name has 2 or more E’s
Word = TIE
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 685
15.7 Name of the GameThe Expert System's Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Square 14C - letter Y– one of the author’s names ends in Y
Square 2C - letter E – Ex- word in title
Square 12B - letter S– page count 75 - 199
Word = YES
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 705
15.8 Name of the GameHistory of the Rain by Niall Williams
Square 7C - letter G– Good reads author
Square 9E - letter I – set in and author born in Ireland
Square 6E - letter N– new to me author
Word = GIN
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 735
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Gods of Jade and Shadow (other topics)The Inn (other topics)
Rogue Protocol (other topics)
The Inn (other topics)
The Escape (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (other topics)James Patterson (other topics)
Martha Wells (other topics)
James Patterson (other topics)
David Baldacci (other topics)
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The Counterfeit Viscount by Ginn Hale
This was a cute little romantic adventure. Well, as cute as a plot based on revenge and the exploitation of a supernatural undercaste can be. The romantic relationship already exists and is hidden, as this world variation includes period typical homophobia. And the whole noble connected with a half-demon slum boss part wouldn't go over well either.
The characterization of the main characters, plot development, and relationship misunderstandings are as developed as you're going to get in 120 pages. There's some familiar aspects, such as card tables and special clubs and dancing, although they serve the adventure plot, not the romantic one. There's some nice tension and a positive ending with a twist.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 685