Reading with Style discussion
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WI 20-21 Completed Tasks
20.7 LifetimeLeaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Pub 1855 (between 1825-1900)
There is a ridiculous amount of repetition and lists in many of Whitman's poems. The first words of lines being the same is a method of emphasis used frequency. Many middles of lines contain lists of some variety, of places or adjectives, or types of people. He declaims his praises and I can see him as a street preacher crying his poetry out, because that is often the way it reads. Based on his works, he loves his country and occasionally acknowledges its failings. He loves humanity in nature and form and variety. And he really pulls up those emotions for it. If his daily life was like his poetry he'd be a very dramatic person to know, constantly distracted by the emotional aspect of the commonplace. I know zero about his life and am now curious enough to go and check.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 length
Task total: 35
Grand total: 790
10.5 AuthorL'Anomalie by Hervé Le Tellier
One of the main characters is an author of an eponymous book (wikipedia page in french)
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.7 - main events of the book are during a flight with atmospheric turbulences)
+5 Prize-worthy
Task total = 20
Points total = 365
15.2 Name of the GameWhen He Was Wicked (Bridgertons #6) by Julia Quinn
10C- Letter W - Title has Who, What, When, Where, or Why
9B - Letter I - Set on an island (UK)
11E - Letter T - Title has no "The"
Word: WIT
Task: 15
Season Total: 1290
Post 573 Ann wrote: "10.9 The Fifth SeasonTrail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
#15
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It started off really well, set in post-apocalypti..."
Your combo of 10.9 is probably a typo as that is the task you're claiming. Let us know which other task you meant.
20.5 AfricaTears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
Simple and easy books are about all I've wanted to read lately (see, e.g., the fact that I've read four "In Death" books in the last 9 months). So, this series fits the bill.
This book delivers exactly what it promises--a light, charming, not particularly challenging read. The characters are heartfelt, if somewhat simple. The "mystery" here isn't much of a mystery, but that's typical for the cozy genre, I think. This is as much about the setting as about the detective work and there's a culture being described as the characters drink tea and talk about politeness, the effect of the modern world on culture, and other topics.
The narrator irritatingly seemed to stumble on the character names every single time they were read, which made the listening experience a bit less enjoyable than it could have been. Even so, I would listen to another of this series.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 490
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 573... Your combo of 10.9 is probably a typo"Whoops, yes, my combo should have been 10.7, as a weather catastrophe destroyed most of the U.S.
20.1 Black History MonthHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I was very young when the Nigerian Civil War/Biafran War was happening, but it made a big impact. I remember the TV ads about the starving children and being told to ‘finish your dinner’ because children were starving in Africa. I also remember learning about kwashiorkor in University and doubtless being shown photos of people from the Biafran War. This made the second half of this very excellent novel very hard to read. I kept expecting the worst.
Adichie has created a very compelling story, of ordinary (mainly) middle class Nigerians who mostly are Igbo people. There is quite a cast of characters, but there are five main ones we follow throughout. The first half of the novel develops the characters and allows us to get to know them; and we see the gradual development of the civil war from their perspective (which is distant or theoretical). Then we’re all thrown into it. The civil war comes to town, and it’s ugly. I was on the edge of my seat for a great deal of this part of the novel, it goes from bad to worse and you just know it could really go downhill fast at any point. It’s not unremitting though, thankfully. Relatively speaking there is some good ending.
This book teeters on 5*, the only issue I had was that I didn’t have a handle on the non-linear narrative and was slightly confused about an important occurrence that was referred to early-ish, but not explained until later which interrupted the flow. 4.5*
20 task
10 review
15 prize
10 combo 10.5 (there are 2 writers that are MC), 20.5
______
55
Running total: 750
15.3 Name of the GameAbout a Boy by Nick Hornby
15C- Letter Y - One of author's names ends in Y
17B - Letter E - Author born in Europe
7E - Letter N - New to you author.
Word: YEN
Task: 15
Season Total: 1305
...; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; ....; .....; .....
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; .... (3x)
20.1; 20.2; .....; 20.4; .....; 20.6; 20.7;.....; .....; .20.10
15.4 Name of the GameRound 3
No Wind of Blame (Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway #5) by Georgette Heyer
Square 15B - letter L - lit map: Agatha Christie
Square 3C - letter A - born: August 16, 1902
Square 12C - letter S - #5 in series
Square 11C - letter H - author's last name begins with H
Word: LASH
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,445
10.7 La NinaThe Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
I feel so lucky in the books I've chosen lately...it's been one five-star read after another! This one definitely followed suit.
Dylan grew up living above an indie theater in London with his mum and grandma. They're both recently departed and he's broke and about to lose the theater/the only home he's ever known. Among his mother's things, he finds the address to a trailer park in the Scottish Highlands where his mum had purchased what sounds like an Airstream for him. Good thing because this is no time to be homeless: it's the coldest year on record, earliest and most snow on record, it's even dumping in places where snow is unheard of (Morocco, Dubai, the Sahara...). It's the Apocalypse, but somehow IKEA is still operating...
Constance and Stella are his neighbors in the trailer park. Stella is a pre-teen, super-smart goth version of Rainbow Bright, and is struggling with the fact that her voice is starting to crack and the hair on her upper lip is coming on and she can't get the hormone pills she needs to make it stop and is also struggling with the small-town narrow-mindedness and cruelty of the townies who grew up knowing her as a lad.
This was such an interesting take on CliFi/Apocalypse Fic: in so many dystopian novels, it's focused solely on how humans survive a wasteland...this one shows the descent to The End with a strange mix of business-as-usual and struggle to survive the end of the world all while finding out who you are and figuring out how to remain true to yourself (isn't that, after all, what makes us Human?).
The writing was fantastic, loved the characters (for the most part), and while the endings felt rather abrupt I would still recommend this highly.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.3: "J"enni; 10.4)
Task total: 30
Season total: 1270
20.8 travelTrain: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World-from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief by Tom Zoellner
I would consider this more of a microhistory of trains than a travel book, but travel is a main page genre. The book is organized into chapters by various famous or important routes and the chapters are arranged roughly chronologically, beginning in England and the advent of the steam engine. The author rode on at least a portion of each route and describes personal anecdotes along with more informational topics. The writing style is conversational and pleasant enough, but not riveting, and I doubt I would have continued if it hadn't been for the challenge. I found the section on trains in India the most interesting and how different the whole culture around them was compared to the American and European versions.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 820
20.4 ScienceMap of Bones by James Rollins
Ugh, this book was a disappointing mess as the followup to Sandstorm that I read earlier this season. The concept is cool - Rollins actually describes the group as "killer scientists" - excellent military who are sent to get PhDs. Science was still central to the book with concepts explained along the way - the treasure hunt used magnetism and electricity and superconductivity in some really neat ways. But the book overall felt like Rollins had read The DaVinci code, published only a couple years earlier, and decided something involvingmysticism, Vatican secrets, and a hidden bloodline (more peripherally and not the same one, but still) was a great follow up to his previous book where antimatter was important. Or maybe it was just the ensemble thriller that felt similar and this is about basic genre tropes and not this author at all. I also didn't enjoy the higher brutality level. On the other hand, I had read Cussler since Sandstorm and Rollins is much better at gender equality. I will give the series one more try and see how it goes.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.3)
+5 length (523 pgs)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 860
20.8 TravelThe Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
"The Living Mountain" is poetic prose in praise of the Cairngorm Mountains of northeastern Scotland. It's nature writing with a philosophical feeling to it. Nan Shepherd started exploring the Cairngorms at an early age, and continued mountain walking until she was aged. Although she was well-traveled, she always returned to her home near the eastern side of the mountain range. Shepherd had climbed its peaks, but she seemed to draw more pleasure from the plateau--observing wildlife, exploring the lochs, and following springs to their natural source. She was a very observant person who often took in the activity of the natural world while she maintained stillness. Shepherd wrote descriptions that use all the senses in appreciating the beautiful, but sometimes unforgiving, mountains.
Nan Shepherd was also the author of three modernist novels, essays, and a collection of poetry about her beloved Cairngorms. She wrote "The Living Mountain" during World War II, but it sat in a drawer for thirty years before being published in 1977. Her image is on Scotland's five-pound note. Robert Macfarlane wrote an excellent introduction to "The Living Mountain" with biographical details and an appreciation of Shepherd's writing. This is a contemplative book that I will tuck away to be enjoyed again.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 390
10.6 NotableThe Institute by Stephen King
5 stars
This is the first Stephen King novel that I have ever read. I have always been so concerned about reading his works in the right order because I know that he links things together, but when I started to get in a bit of a reading slump this month I decided to deviate from my reading plan and grab whatever caught my eye from the library. This book was the first one that I saw that appealed to me and I am very glad to have read it.
It’s not a small book, but I read it over the course of three evenings. It has interesting pacing because it starts out slowly and builds steam towards the middle of the story and then once all the action is over there is a bit of a cool down at the end. This pacing made the story seem cinematic to me, if all of Stephen King’s books work this way I am not surprised that so many have been made into movies.
The plot revolves around a 12 year old boy genius who is kidnapped and then experimented on in a secret facility called the institute. But it’s not his genius that they are after, it’s his (very weak) ability to make things move with his mind.
I thought King did a fairly convincing job of making it seem like the story was from the perspective of a 12 year old boy, the fact that he was smarter than most of the adults made it more believable when he said or did things that didn’t seem like what a prepubescent tween would do.
The one thing I would say about this book is that I was shocked by some of the violence. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there was a lot of blood and gore, physical and sexual abuse, and torture, often of children. Having never read anything of King’s I don’t know if this is standard for his works, I also don’t read horror or even thrillers so it might have just been me being naive going into this. Despite being intensely uncomfortable with some of the content, it was purposeful and moved the story forward and provided motivations for characters or revealed something about characters etc. (though I think there were a few things that could have been omitted without ruining the effect).
Overall, I couldn’t put this book down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be one of my favorites for 2021.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.4, the institute is a scientific research facility, most of the book revolves around experimenting on the protagonist’ 20.10)
+10 Awards (Audie Award, Goodreads Choice)
+5 Jumbo (561)
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 490
10.8 LunarClaudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
Lexile: 1000
In keeping with my current attention span, this YA nonfiction book was just right. The author did extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and other people who knew her and produced this excellent young adult nonfiction account of her role in the Montgomery bus boycott. I had never heard of Ms. Colvin. She was a teenager who refused to give up her seat on the bus about a year before Rosa Parks. Colvin's court case started the discussions of changing the policy in Montgomery and she later became one of the star witnesses in the federal case that actually ruled segregation a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Colvin's story shows the way that history tends to pick a narrative and doesn't tell the stories of all involved. Because Colvin was a teen and got pregnant, the leaders of the civil rights movement didn't want her to be the face of the movement. She did some pretty courageous things, but was largely forgotten when the history narrative was written.
I'm glad her story has been recorded. This book would be great for high-level middle school or early high school readers who want a better understanding of what the people involved in the bus boycott were really facing.
+10 Task (pub. 2009)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)
+5 Prize Worthy (National Book Award)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 520
10. 7 La NinaThe Dry by Jane Harper
Review
I've been delving back into the thriller genre this winter. Working at Indigo books for the past 3 years, we have always, always shelved Harper under Genre - Mystery. These categorizations are somewhat arbitrary, i.e. the library often puts genre authors in fiction and vice versa from whatever our database says.
However, The Dry by Jane Harper could almost, almost be put under literary fiction. Yes, it's a mystery. Yes, it's not all that deep, but, there is something in the way Harper writes that conjures up more than your typical contemporary murder mystery.
For whatever reason, I happen to be reading multiple books set in Australia at the moment. The Dry is heart breaking in it's description of the land and so very reminiscent of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. The earth is dead, dry and the community of Kiewarra reflects that so clearly. The plot centers around 2 mysteries, one dating back 20 years bringing a Melbourne cop back to his fraught childhood home. In some ways, the who-dun-it of the Harper killings is somewhat predictable. I don't want to spoil anything but found this particular plot point a bit heavy handed.
Earlier this fall, I read In the Woods by Tana French; the style here is somewhat comparative. I loved how Harper intersperses the italicized flashbacks throughout the narrative. Very effective and kept my turning pages when I had other things I should have been doing.
+10 Task
+5 Combo 10.3 Winter - Author name begins with J
+10 Review
+15 Prize Worthy
Task Total: 40 pts
Grand Total: 280 pts
20.6 Caribbeanset almost entirely in Trinidad with one brief scene in Puerto Rico
A Brief Conversion and Other Stories by Earl Lovelace
I don't remember ever having read any fiction set in Trinidad... and this was an excellent introduction. This book presents several quasi-related stories...mostly set in a rural town in Trinidad. The author really makes his characters flesh and blood...brooding mothers, gamblers, galavanting husbands, barbershop folk, a fire-eater, an emigrant. These are not just stereotypical characters. The reader gets to know or at least muse upon each character's motivations. My favorite story involved a man who wanted to stage his own funeral. He had been caught cheating with the neighbor and thought if he could come to life during the funeral (as had happened with a woman a few years back who was about to be buried), he could engender forgiveness from his wife. There were also several references to Trinidadian music and food which caused me to do some googling and make some discoveries. I really enjoyed the author's style and descriptions and will be putting more of his works on my TBR list.
4 stars.
Task=20
Review=10
combo= 5 (10.4)
Task Total=35
Grand Total= 665
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
20.1; 20.2; .....; .....; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; .....
10.9 The Fifth SeasonThe Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
While I'm happy to have finished this series so that many of my questions were answered and I have a feeling of closure, I'm a little deflated because now I'm finished with this series and have nothing more to look forward to in this particular universe...
Lucky(?) for me, I feel like I missed a lot and could do with a re-listen--which will be an absolute pleasure! I loved this series on the level that I love The Lord of the Rings trilogy and OSC's Ender series.
I really don't know what else to add to this "review" since I don't want to give anything away to those of you who have started this series but not yet read this installment...let's just say: every single award this series has won--and there have been *a lot* of them--is well-deserved.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Prizeworthy (Hugo Award Best Novel, 2018; Nebula Award Best Novel, 2017; Locus Award Best Fantasy Novel, 2018, and more)
+15 Combo (10.4, 10.6, 10.7)
Task total: 50
Season total: 1320
20.8 Travel Tokyo on Foot: Travels in the City's Most Colorful Neighborhoods by Florent Chavouet
+20 Task
No style points as it is a graphic novel
Task total = 20
Points total = 385
10.2 ChristmasThe Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3) by Tom Clancy
Review
I didn't read this series because I'm watching the recent Prime adaptation. In fact, I haven't seen any full episode; just snippets of it. I started on this series after years of badgering by hubby who rarely reads but loved this series.
As much as I like Jack Ryan as a character and the last book, this one was rather hard for me to read because I found it to be too technical with the submarine etc. Other than that, I did find the intrigue side of things very engaging and suspenseful. I'd be continuing with the series but hoping that the next one won't be too technical.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - H for Hunt)
+10 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,470
10.4 Valentine'sThe Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
In this second-in-series, Horowitz's laconic private investigator Hawthorne is up against a killer who has crushed the skull of a top divorce lawyer with a hyper-expensive bottle of wine. Horowitz puts himself into the narrative as Anthony, Hawthorne's sidekick, and a vicious female detective inspector is competing to be the star of the investigation.
This was the first of Anthony Horowitz's novels for adults that I've read. I would normally have gone for the first one first, but I wanted an audiobook and this was one of the few available at the library without waiting. It was fine as a stand-alone, lighthearted and with plenty of red herrings. I had an idea who'd done it but I certainly didn't have all the pieces of the explanation in place. A satisfying listen, and I will look out for more either in this series or his others.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.5 - the character Anthony is an author)
Task total: 25
Season Total: 790
10.5 AuthorBooks Do Furnish a Room by Anthony Powell
The last three books in A Dance to the Music of Time are set after the Second World War. This one takes a while to get going, perhaps mirroring Nick’s difficulty in settling back into civilian life – not that he had an exciting war. But he soon becomes the book reviews editor of a left-wing magazine, which brings him back into contact with various characters from the past, including Widmerpool, now an MP and married to a sulky and sultry young wife. There’s also an entertaining new character, an author called X Trapnel apparently based on Julian Maclaren-Ross, of whom I’d never heard but who sounds worth reading.
+10 Task (main character Nick Jenkins is an author, and there are several others)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
Task total: 25
Season Total: 815
20.1 Black History MonthKindred by Octavia E. Butler
+20 Task (no 14 on list)
YA Assignment at BPL so no Style points
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 275
NoTG total: -
Season Total: 275
10.1 .... 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 .... 10.10
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
20.1 20.2 .... .... .... .... 20.7 .... 20.9 20.10
15.8 Name of the GameBetrayal in Death by J.D. Robb
Square 4E - Letter D - double trouble
Square 1C - Letter R - Romance MPG
Square 14D - Letter Y - mystery MPG
Word = DRY
Task total: 30
Grand total: 550
20.8 TravelHawaii by James A. Michener
4.0/5.0 - This epic book by James Michener covers the history of Hawai'i from its formation as an island, to the migration of the original Hawai'ians from Bora Bora, through the time of the missionaries, the plantation era, World War II and ending just before statehood. It traces many different races and nationalities who came to Hawai'i, changed it in significant ways, and created the culture it is today. Sometimes it's hard for me to read books that show examples of racism and misogyny, and I have to tell myself that it is reflective of the truth of the time in which it takes place. The missionaries came to save the Hawai'ians from themselves, and there were both examples of their superiority mindset and of their generosity towards others. Women were not held in high regard for most of the book, but they were often the people who were the strongest, most generous, and best decision makers. I now have family who live in Hawai'i, including my little Hawai'ian princess granddaughter, so that made the book all the more interesting to me.
Task: 20
Combo: 15 (10.3(J), 10.4(H), 10.5 (Hoxworth Hale)
Review: 10
Jumbo: 20 (937 pages)
Task total: 65
Season Total: 1370
...; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; ....; .....; .....
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; .... (3x)
20.1; 20.2; .....; 20.4; .....; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; .....; .20.10
205 AfricaAfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers ed by Ivor W. Hartmann
#212 on list
One of the stories that struck me most was that of a young man trying to get his friend to a clinic, and past the credit check, to receive the misty breath of life that would cure AIDS for a single year. One of the more satisfying stories was of a South African hunter who turned to poaching a particular type of alien who hunted him back.
Some stories were distinct in their African-ness, such as one where a central event was a tribal initiation and what went wrong had to do with recording implants. They pulled in tradition or environment in one way or another. Others would not have stood out in a more general collection. Like most collections of short stories there was some level of unevenness, but I overall enjoyed the read.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 890
10.4 Valentine’s The Burning White by Brent Weeks
+10 Task
+20 Jumbo (992 pages)
Task total = 30
Season Total: 1030
10.1 Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni
I don't believe I've read her poetry before, although I knew her name. Most of it is punchy, with shorter lines,even when the emotions expressed are softer. Most is in plain words. Family and the African American experience are the two most recurring themes in this volume, with some clearly autobiographical works and some dedicated to individuals. Quilts are a common motif and used for comfort and survival and family in different places. It was interesting to see Virginia Tech mentioned in a few of the poems, because that is where I graduated from, although it was before she joined the staff. I enjoyed the read very much.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 910
15.10 Name of the GameShadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye
Square 1C-Letter R-Romance
Square 4E-Letter D-Double letter title
Square 5B-Letter I-Author born in India
Word: RID
+45 task
+5 published 1955
+100 Finish
+100 three- letter words
Task total: 250
Season total: 510
20.7 LifetimeHenry Dunbar by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Thirty-five years before the action of this novel, Henry Dunbar and his valet perpetrated forgery upon the banking firm of Henry's father in order to pay Henry's gambling debts. The crime is discovered but covered up and Henry is sent to India to serve in the firm's offices there. The valet, Joseph Wilmot, was dismissed and told never to darken the firms doors again. When the novel opens, the elder Dunbar has died and Henry is recalled home to assume the mantle of enormous wealth.
To tell further here wanders into spoiler territory. I see that some say this is not her best. It has been some time since I have read Braddon and am unable to make much comparison, but I can say that I think only the most naive reader would be fooled as to what has happened. The fun is in watching to see if/when/how the characters learn of the deceit.
Much of what I have read of 19th Century fiction would be classed as realism. There is little about this that would fall into that class, other than the consultation of a Bradshaw, train travel, and perhaps food items at various hotels. This is sensation fiction and fits the Wikipedia definition admirably.
Typically the sensation novel focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder. It distinguished itself from other contemporary genres, including the Gothic novel, by setting these themes in ordinary, familiar and often domestic settings, thereby undermining the common Victorian-era assumption that sensational events were something foreign and divorced from comfortable middle-class life.This was just what I wanted at this time. Is it really worth my rating of 4-stars? I guess it depends on what your reading mouth is watering for.
+20 Task (1864)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
Task total = 35
Season total = 605
15.10 The Name of the GameThe Redeemer by Jo Nesbø
Square 1B - letter R = 10K + ratings
Square 5D - letter I = no 'i' in author name
Square 7C - letter G = GR author
Square 12C - letter S = #6 in series
Word = RIGS
45 task
_____
45
100 completion bonus
100 bonus for 4 four or more letter words
______
245
Running total: 995
10.7 La NinaThe Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
10 pts 10.7 La Nina
5 pts 10.3 Winter
5 pts 20.3 Post Modern
10 pts Review
Published in 1962 and set in 2145, the world is suffering the effects of a disastrous climatic change resulting in substantial global warming and flooding of much of the inhabited regions of the world. The protagonist Kerans is a scientist with an expedition from one of the few remaining settlements above the Arctic Circle.
This is an apocalyptic world where the plants and animals have reverted to prehistoric times and the few people are struggling to survive and slowly losing their humanity. Interesting from the perspective of when it was written and the prescient nature of its premise; however the plot like is difficult to follow on occasion and it is difficult to find a sense of connection with the characters.
Task total: 30 pts
Season total: 440 pts
10.1 ... 10.3 10.4 ... ... 10.7 10.8 ... ...
... 20.2 20.3 20.4 ... ... ... ... ... 20.10
15.1. 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 - Four Letter Word (NoG)
20.4 ScienceLab Girl by Hope Jahren
+20 task
+5 combo (10.6 - 2016)
+5 prize-worthy (AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books for Young Adult Science Book (2017))
Task total = 30
Season Total: 30
Welcome, Kristina! You may post any books you've read since December 1 that fit this season's tasks.
10.4 Valentine'sCareer of Evil by Robert Galbraith
+10 task
+5 prize-worthy (Audie Award for Mystery (2016))
Task total = 15
Season Total: 45
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Welcome, Kristina! You may post any books you've read since December 1 that fit this season's tasks."Thanks, Elizabeth!!
10.6 NotableHow We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
This book was a pleasure to read despite it touching some sore spots in my own life. Although we are of different races and different generations, I felt a connection.
This is a memoir of a young Texas man as he grew up with his single mom, discovering that he is gay....and discovering on his own...how to survive being gay and Black in America. He has a literary bent that gets him a tuition to college (although he had to forego NYU for lack of funds). His Mom is a wonderful person who guides him as best she can. The author's style just seems to always hit the right note. He is brave in revealing his story. This is a writer to watch...but I recommend reading this now before he becomes even more well known. 5 stars.
Task=10
Review=10
combo= 5 (10.4)
prizes (2)=10
Task Total=35
Grand Total= 700
10.1; ....; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; .....; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5; 15.6; 15.7
20.1; 20.2; 20.3; .....; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; .....
20.1 Black History MonthThe Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
20 pts 20.1 Black History Month
5 pts 10.3 Winter
5 pts 20.3 Post Modern
10 pts Review
Excellent book raising issues of racial justice in the United States. Written in 1963, this book is comprised of two essays; the first a letter from Baldwin to his nephew and the second an essay on the intersection and interaction of religion and racial equity.
The letter from Baldwin to his nephew rings eeriely true in today’s world and is a must read about the lack of racial equity in the United States. The book is beautifully written and incisively highlights the fallicies White Americans tell themselves about the interactions between White and Black in the US
Task total: 40 pts
Season total: 480 pts
10.1 ... 10.3 10.4 ... ... 10.7 10.8 ... ...
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 ... ... ... ... ... 20.10
15.1. 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 - Four Letter Word (NoG)
10.3 The Last Hunt The Last Hunt by Deon Meyer
I've read a number of Meyer's books before and enjoyed each one. This is typical of his Benny Griessel series - well drawn South African setting, good solid plotting, interesting characters. This was especially interesting to me for a few reasons - it's one of his most recent, and deals directly with modern day government and corruption issues within South Africa, so it was a look into an issue I didn't know as much about. Also, one of the precipitating events was a murder on the Rovos Rail, a luxury train line across the country, and one my parents have actually traveled on! (There was no murder when they went on it!). I always enjoy when there's some small piece of a book that jumps out and connects to places or people I know in real life.
+10 task
+10 lost in translation (translated from Afrikaans)
+5 prize worthy (ATKV-Woordveertjie for Spanningslektuur 2019)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 285
10.6 Notable The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa
This was a strange read, but overall one I enjoyed and I thought worth reading. It's set in 90s Peru, dealing with corruption and a fairly sleazy media figure who takes down big names with huge cover stories. He threatens to expose Enrique, one of the main characters, with photos from an orgy, and then is murdered. From there, we have a really memorable cast of characters carrying the story forward, from the second in command journalist who pursued the story to the near-homeless former poetry reciter with a grudge against the paper. The other central plot line involves Enrique's wife, who is having an affair with his lawyer's wife. There was definitely more steaminess to the affair scenes than I anticipated!
+10 task (#88 on the 2018 list)
+10 lost in translation (originally in Spanish)
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 315
10.7 La Nina A Better Man by Louise Penny
This is the 15th installment in the Armand Gamache series, and I'm both happy and sad to have gotten this far - only one more and then I'm caught up (yay!) but then I won't have more to read until August! (Boo!). I have really been enjoying the time I've spent with Armand and the villagers of Three Pines, and even though there's always a challenge in making murder series work in small settings (how many murders can there possibly BE in any one small town??), I think Penny does a great job in making each story feel fresh and unique (and realistic enough!) by introducing new characters, new subplots, new job titles, and generally letting her characters grow and change. In this book, for instance, Armand is starting a new/old job (re-starting a job he already held, this time with his second in command as his semi-boss), and Beauvoir is about to move to Paris. Heading into book 16 now, and looking forward to it...
+10 task (rain and flooding start the crime solving in motion)
+5 combo (10.4)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 340
10.7 La NinaBury Your Dead by Louise Penny
This book is Armand Gamache #6 and the first I've read in the series. The story was a 3-in-1, at least: murder of an archeologist-wannabe, flashback to a rescue-gone-wrong in previous book, re-investigation of the murder of hermit involving the Three Pines residents. Setting for the main plot (the search for the burial site of Samuel de Champlain) is Quebec City during the Winter Carnaval. The winter weather is a huge part of the book - dressing for it, walking in it, discussing a death on ice, competing in ice boat races, and at the end, a blizzard that includes a murder confession!!
+10 Task
+10 combo for 10.4, 10.5 (poet Ruth Zardo is a recurring Three Pines character)
+15 Prizeworthy
+10 Review
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 590
15.1 Name of the GameAn Excess Male by Maggie Shen King
Square 15E - letter L– MPG LGBT
Square 2C - letter E– Ex-word in title
Square 4B - letter D– debut novel
Word = LED
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1045
15.2 Name of the GameWe All Sleep in the Same Room by Paul Rome
Square 7B - letter G– Author name has no letter G
Square 5C - letter I– IN in title
Square 6E - letter N– new to me author
Word = GIN
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1060
20.10 Grand MasterDuma Key by Stephen King
Review
This book sticks to the genre that made him famous, the weird, mysterious, creepy something out that that wants to harm the protagonist, his family, his business associates and friends. Like Dead Zone, Bag of Bones, Pet Semetary, Misery and a few others, the main character is alone in a house in a very quiet community, sometimes with a small child, woman or other family member. Unlike most of his other books of this type, he is not a writer, but an artist. (Drats! No combo) Again like in other stories such as Dead Zone, he is involved in a horrific accident., this time at a worksite for the very successful construction company he owns. He changes. He has to relearn all basic skills and its painful and frustrating and now involves rages and strange feelings and black outs. His wife of many years decides she wants to divorce him because in these blackouts he has tried to kill her. So, to recover from his broken body, broken brain, broken heart, broken family and broken life, he finds a cottage to rent on an island near Sarasota, Florida. The island is owned by one grand dame who has inherited it. She is now a recluse as Alzheimer’s overtakes her. She lives with a caretaker and they have a very special loving bond, like a mother and son. The cottages are usually seasonal rentals for a few weeks or months but he stays a year becoming the only other permanent resident. He develops a friendship with the caretaker who has a tragic past of his own. They soon learn they have something else in common, an uncanny ability to read minds, or psychically see events in the past, present and future. Man started painting as a form of therapy and finds he has a real talent for it and becomes a sensation so that a gallery shows him and rakes in money. But the specialness of his work is that sometimes they most often occur during blackouts and includes items or symbology of his psychic visions.
He thought he had picked this quite place to recover but of course as expected, it was a metaphysical force or forces and the evil one awakes, haunts him, kills people precious to him and ta-da! We have another Stephen King Novel of Jumbo length full of horror and suspense! It’s like magic because although it is long, predictable and really a bit goofy, I still get sucked in, offended when anyone tries to interrupt my obsessive reading of it!
+20 pts- Task
+10 pts- Review
+10 pts - Prizeworthy (Bram Stoker Award 2008, Audie Award 2009)
+5 pts- Jumbo (611 pages)
Task Total - 45 pts
Season Total - 725 pts
20.2 JazzJazz by Toni Morrison
Review
I don’t know if it’s the mood I’m in, but most of what I’ve read this Season seems like I’m walking through fog while I’m reading. It opens with the funeral of a very young woman whose lover, Joe Trace, had shot her and his wife has come to the Viewing to cut her face with a knife. So, a middle-aged married couple have become dull. He starts chasing a girl young enough to be his daughter, his wife, Violet finds out. He has done it before, she’s devastated and finds the girl is Dorcas, a young, fast girl still in her teens. Joe finds his sweetie in a speakeasy dancing with another man and he loves her so much he kills her. After Violet’s attack on the corpse, she is renamed “Violent” by the community. It is later told to “Violent” by a friend of Dorcas that she had just told Joe she didn’t want to see him anymore and was being pursued by a young, macho, good looking buck nearer to her age. The narrative is told from the different characters’ viewpoints. First the wife done wrong, the girl’s concerned aunt with whom she lives. The other narrators are Dorcas as she describes her dying, the cheating husband and his obsession with her, and the Dorcas’ best friend, and even the woman who rented a room to Joe for his trysts. All of it feels like an out of body experience for this reader as they communicate their thoughts and versions of events. Like a smoky, hot and crowded secret speakeasy where the music is languid and the dancers sway and everyone is just a bit buzzed from illegal booze.
+20 pts- Task
+10 pts - Review
+5 pts - Combo (20.1-# 60 on list)
Task Total - 35 pts
Season Total - 760 pts
20.6 Caribbean (Puerto Rico)Simone by Eduardo Lalo
Review
A published author and professor in San Juan wonders aimlessly about the city, feeling trapped on this sad island that he sees as degenerating rapidly, especially in culture. Although he has been to Spain and France, the island compelled him to return. He comments on the ennui of the locals and it seems everyone’s goal is to get away, live and work elsewhere, only coming back temporarily to show off their new sophistication as well as materialistic gains. Despite the desire, most are unable to leave whether because of lack of opportunity or a psychological block of not belonging as they do on their island. He is a regular at certain cafes and restaurants and is so predictable that someone starts leaving him mysterious messages, often quotes from great literature, in places and in ways that show how well this person knows his routine. Sometimes the message is written in chalk in the university parking lot, or as he steps out of his office only for a moment or left on the bulletin board of a café. Then they start giving clues where to find more of them. In one of the books he wrote in the bookstore, a boutique cashier will hand him one or in his takeout bag in a restaurant. Eventually they do meet, (you’ll have to read for yourself to find out who it is) and they develop a rare friendship and then just as suddenly as it began, it is over. The book covers a theme of what it is to be invisible in a crowd. About what it is to be an immigrant as well as an emigrant, how people become stuck and what are relationships anyway?
I’m not a fan of navel gazing, and it started out that way until they meet and then there is action. It’s very lofty and he is part of that group of high flung over thinkers who are over critical of writers and literature and what it means to be a non-European Hispanic writer. His embittered attitude seems to stem that his works are not widely read because his country has no taste for intelligent literature and the onset mid-life crisis while reflecting on failed love affairs, a job where he is unappreciated and his sense of being stuck amongst cultural peasants.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo (10.4, 10.5)
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - LiT (Spanish)
+ 5 pts - Prizeworthy (Premio Internacional de Novela Romulo Gallegos 2013)
Task Total - 55 pts
Season Total - 815 pts
10.4 ValentinesThe Coal Tattoo by Silas House
"Their land was the most important thing they had besides one another. That loving the land was a given, not something one could choose, the same way you love your sister or brother even when you don't want to."
"The Coal Tattoo" is set in the hill country of Kentucky where the mining company helps put food on the table, but sacrifices the land and the men who fall victims to mining accidents. The Sizemore children were raised by their grandmothers after the death of their father in a mining accident and the suicide of their mother. When the grandmothers died, Easter took care of her younger teenage sister, Anneth.
Although they were very close, the temperaments of the two sisters were totally different. Easter was a deeply religious Pentecostal who lived a simple life, and desperately wanted to be a mother. Anneth was a wild beauty who loved dancing, smoking, drinking in bars, and flirting with men. She also had to cope with manic and depressive feelings. "The Coal Tattoo" shows the love between the two sisters which is strong, but often strained. Their shared love of the family land is a strong bond between them.
In addition to the characters, I enjoyed the sense of time and place in this story. Many of the characters were talented singers or musicians, and author Silas House often used music to set a 1960s vibe or show personality traits. A scene with Anneth wildly dancing to "Maybellene" in a tight red dress with all the men's eyes on her was an effective opening to the story. Although this book is part of a trilogy, it can be read as a stand-alone novel.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 410
10.3 WinterLondon Under Snow by Jordi Llavina
+10 Task
+10 Lost in Translation
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 590
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Inn (other topics)
The Escape (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Review ** spoiler alert **
4.0/5.0 - Wow, this was a powerful, beautifully written, but brutal book that looked at a poor African American family living in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. The family of five lost the mother at the birth of the youngest child, Junior, who is now 8. The other three children are Esch-14, Skeetah- 16, and Randall- 17. The father is an alcoholic, who tries his best, but the family lives in extreme poverty. The story takes place over 12 days, those leading up to, during and right after Katrina.(view spoiler)[ Esch discovers she's pregnant, her father loses 3 fingers while trying to prepare for the hurricane, there is a major fighting pit bull plot that I won't go into, and the family's house is destroyed. (hide spoiler)] In the end, the only thing that matters is that they're a family, prepared to go forward together.
Task - 10 (2012 Notable book)
Review - 10
Combo -15 (10.3 - J, 10.4 - S, 10.7 - Hurricane),
Prizeworthy - 10 (National Book Award for Fiction (2011), ALA Alex Award)
Total: 45
Season Total: 1275
...; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; ....; .....; .....
15.1; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; .... (3x)
20.1; 20.2; .....; 20.4; .....; 20.6; 20.7;.....; .....; .20.10