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WI 20-21 Completed Tasks
10.4 ValentinesThe Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere
5.0 stars - Sometimes a book is more than the story, more than the laughter or a way to pass the time. Sometimes, like now, a book feels like it was written just for you. How ironic that on this day, the 20th anniversary of my mother's death, that this little story, of a little boy who loses his mother to cancer on Christmas Day (with a subplot of another character, a middle-aged man, who loses his mother unexpectedly on the day after Christmas) should be the one I read. A few things stick out to me. First, no matter your age, you're never ready to lose your mother. Second, your mother is never really gone, her love lives on in your heart. Finally, the beautiful lesson, God doesn't take her from you, He receives her with love.
This is the first book of the Christmas Hope series, but the third that I have read. They are short books, classified as Christian Fiction, and each one seems to build from the characters of the previous one. This is a book I will treasure, and may read annually on this day.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Combo 10.3: 5
Total: 25
Season Total: 2060
10.4 ValentinesSuper America by Anne Panning
3.5 rounded to 4.0 stars - I normally don't read or enjoy short stories, so this book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. There were some common themes between the ten stories, two took place in Hawai'i - "Tidal Wave Wedding" and "What Happened" and two dealt with devastating bicycle accidents "What Happened" and the novella "Freeze." All were glimpses into what could have been my life or yours. And all had some academic connection - a college student or professor. I enjoyed many of them, but my favorites were "Five Reasons I Miss the Laundromat" and the novella. The laundromat story brought me back to a time in my life when I occasionally would find myself hauling a week's worth of clothing for a family of six, sometimes with one or more of the kids to help, but more often by myself. In a way, it was a respite from a busy family life. The novella, one of several set in a Monroe County college town (Brockport?) spoke to me of a time when I was the person putting on the brave face, managing people and things, while my husband was trying not to die. And like Peter, coming home on Thanksgiving, but not out of the woods yet.
Tomorrow, the college library's book club will meet virtually to discuss this book, written by one of our own faculty. It will be interesting to hear their take, and as Anne is facilitating this, to learn more about it from the author, herself.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Prize: 5 - Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (2007)
Total: 25
Season Total: 2085
10.8 Lunar (Tien's Task) Neighbors by Danielle Steel
Published 2021
4.0/5.0 stars - A good solid book by an author that sometimes I love, other times I don't. Meredith White, a former award winning movie star, lives in a gated house and has hidden herself away for 14 years following the death of her 14 year old son. Then one day a big earthquake hits, and she opens her home to her neighbors whose homes have been badly damaged. The earthquake is a life changer for most of the neighborhood, and new relationships develop, old ones crumble apart. Meredith finds herself becoming friends with the people she welcomes into her home, much to the chagrin of the couple who she employs to run her home, who have been stealing from her for years. The story unfolds over about a year, and while it's not quite a happy ending for everyone, most of the characters grow and find happiness during that time. The one part that bothered me a bit is the few places where a woman is described as "belonging to" a man. Other than that, it was a nice, comfortable read.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Combo 10.3: 5
Total: 25
Season Total: 2110
15.8Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
GET
7D-G, 16C-E, 10D - T
+30 task
+5 published before 1996 (1782)
Task total = 35
Season total = 440
10.4 ValentinesThe Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
The North Berwick coast of Scotland, with its view of the Bass Rock, is the setting for the three timelines showing men physically and emotionally abusing women. In addition to the three main stories the book also tells about boys being abused in boarding school, and has snapshots of anonymous women falling victim to misogynistic violence. Men blamed women for their male anger and lack of control. Others labeled women as witches or regarded them as possessions. The book was relentless in its depiction of the violent patriarchy and troubled women through the centuries. The novel lost the force of an important message through overkill. There was also a sense of emotional distance because there were so many characters. It was disappointing since the author can turn a phrase, and possesses talent. 2.5 stars.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 520
Task 15.06 Name of the GameGoodreads author bio states that Hilma Wolitzer was born in 1930.
Our Main Character, Edward, is a 62 year old High School Science/Biology Teacher
An Available Man (2012) by Hilma Wolitzer (Hardcover, 285 pages)
Square 8A – Letter W - Author first or last name begins with W
Square 9B – Letter I – Character is an instructor (teacher, university faculty)
Square 13A – Letter T – Author born in the thirties - any century
Word = WIT
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 390 + 20 = 410
20.1 Black History MonthHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This book took me two months to read because the reading experience was so intense that I could only manage it in small chunks. The book tells the story of the Biafra-Nigeria war, a conflict about which I know little. The book is beautifully written and presents several very different characters with robust personalities, perspectives, backstories, and paths. I loved the way that the different characters brought their thoughts and histories to their perspective on the war and the politics.
There is also a scene with American journalists coming to cover the war that is beautifully handled and shows the way that foreign media can be so completely ill-informed even when trying to be helpful.
This is probably my favorite of the three books I've read by this author (the others were Purple Hibiscus and Americanah).
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Prize worthy
+15 Combo (10.4, 10.5 - one of three main characters is a writer, 20.5)
Task total: 60
Grand total: 990
10.4 Valentine'sStrange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
+10 Task
+10 Lost in Translation
Task total: 20
Season total: 805
15.4 Name of the GameA Burning by Megha Majumdar
Square 4B - letter D - Debut Novel
Square 5B - letter I - Author born in India
Square 7C - letter G - Goodreads Author
Word = DIG
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 820
15.5 Name of the GameThe Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Square 15C - letter L - Page count over 400
Square 2B - letter E - Author entire published name has 2 or more E's
Square 7E - letter G - Title words: Good, Better or Best
Word = LEG
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 835
15.6 Name of the GameThe Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson
Square 10C - letter T - MPG: Thriller
Square 5D - letter I - Author name has no letter I
Square 6C - letter N - MPG Nordic Noir
Square 13C - letter T - Title: The Plus
Word = TINT
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 850
15.7 Name of the GameA Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
Square 10E - letter T - Title has no "The"
Square 11D - letter H - Hot off the press (pub'd 2020 or 2021) 2020
Square 14C - letter Y - One of author's names ends in Y (Gregory)
Word = THY
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 865
20.6 CaribbeanA Thief in the Village: And Other Stories of Jamaica by James Berry
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.3 Winter
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 890
10.4 Valentine's DayThe Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
After Lieutenant Trotta saves the life of the young Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I in a battle in 1859, the emperor makes him a Baron, and the fortunes of the Trotta family are inextricably bound to the fortunes of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Baron von Trotta has a son who becomes a senior provincial civil servant; he in turn has a son, Carl Joseph, who becomes a second Lieutenant Trotta, and the story follows them into the First World War.
I appreciated reading something from and about this empire that covered so much of central/eastern Europe and which I knew very little about, but I loved this more for its moving portrayal of the relationship between Carl Joseph and his father with no mother or other family to help them communicate. They are so important to each other, and yet their correspondence is limited to weekly single-page letters of news stripped to the bare bones, and when they meet they hardly talk. Neither makes friends easily.
There's also a wonderful chapter from the point of view of the emperor when old - he reigned from 1848 to 1916, longer than Queen Victoria, and lived through the suicide of his son (not mentioned in the book but would have been well known to readers) and the 1914 assassination of the replacement heir, his nephew, which triggered the war.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.3)
+10 LiT (from German)
+ 5 Prizeworthy
Task total: 40
Season Total: 1785
20.5 AfricaKing Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
King Leopold was the constitutional monarch of Belgium. He managed to become the private owner of the Congo. Hochschild recounts the history of King Leopold and those who brought to life the atrocities committed in Congo in search of wealth through ivory (elephant tusks) and then rubber. As the author points out the horrors of African colonialism was not limited to Leopold's Congo but his reign drew a spotlight from reformers, who were unwilling to admit the same issues in British colonies.
The main focus of the book is on the reformers who relentlessly pursued reform. One was an American, the son of slaves who went to the Congo as a missionary. Another was an Irishman who ended up hanged when he tried to overthrow British rule of Ireland.
Hochschild is an amazing story teller and he puts this history in the larger picture of human rights campaigns.
+20 task
+5 combo (20.1)
+15 prizeworthy
+10 review
Task total: 50
Season total: 640
From Post 66Beth wrote: "20.9 Nieces
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Shelved as books about books 85 times
The book seemed to start out straightforward, a simple providing of exper..."
+10 Combo 10.5 and 10.7 (thanks to Rachel in post 841)
From Post 385Katy wrote: "20.9 Nieces
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
I got the idea for this book (that it would fit the task) from another member of the group and it absolutely f..."
+10 Combo 10.5 and 10.7 (thanks to Rachel in post 841)
From Post 802Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.3 Winter
Alex Cross's Trialby James Patterson
author's first name starts with J.
Review
This installment is a story about Alex's ancestor, Abraham Cross during the ..."
+5 Combo 10.8
From Post 805Rosemary wrote: "20.1 Black History Month
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
This is an alternate history book set perhaps 1950s/1960s, presumably in New York but I don’t think it’s ..."
+5 Combo 10.9
From Post 814Tien wrote: "10.6 Notable
Redeployment by Phil Klay
2014
Review
Redeployment is a collection of short stories, all told from perspectives of soldiers. Some stories are during d..."
+5 Combo 10.4
Kate S wrote: "From Post 805Rosemary wrote: "20.1 Black History Month
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
+5 Combo 10.9."
This book is actually nowhere near the top 100 on the new list for 10.9... it was on the first page of the original list, which maybe has caused some confusion?
I know because I was disappointed when the list was changed and it wasn't on there!
Rosemary wrote: "This book is actually nowhere near the top 100 on the new list for 10.9... it was on the first page of the original list, which maybe has caused some confusion?."Thank you Rosemary. We will look at this further.
20.3 Post ModernLove by Toni Morrison
This is one of the few books I am posting without a review, as I just don't know what to make of it. I'll reread it again in a few years, and maybe read some articles and critiques about it. Perhaps then it will make sense to me.
Task: 20
Prize: 5 Ohioana Book Award for Fiction (2004)
Mega Finish: 200
Task total: 225
Season total: 2335 (I think)
Kim - a Mega your first season is fabulous. But did we miss seeing a post for 20.2 Jazz?
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Kim - a Mega your first season is fabulous. But did we miss seeing a post for 20.2 Jazz?"Thanks! It was message 23 on page 1
Kim wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Kim - a Mega your first season is fabulous. But did we miss seeing a post for 20.2 Jazz?"Thanks! It was message 23 on page 1"
Aha! Very good. And congratulations. Not only do you have a Mega for the 200 points, but you should be claiming an RwS Finish for 100 points.
Post 851 Kim wrote: "10.4 ValentinesThe Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere
If you like Hallmark movies, this book is for you. Short, inspirational, and faith-based, this book by Donna Van..."
You claimed this book in Post 57. (I think you were trying to catch up when you realized you could claim tasks multiple times.)
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 851 Kim wrote: "10.4 ValentinesThe Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere
If you like Hallmark movies, this book is for you. Short, inspirational, and faith-based, t..."
I could substitute The Bookshop on the Shore, which I'll add to the post below. It would be the same number of points.
10.4 ValentinesThe Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
I quite enjoyed this novel by Jenny Colgan, having read her tangentially related earlier book The Bookshop on the Corner several years ago. Once again, this book starts out with a young woman who loves books and lives in London, finding herself needing to move with her 4 year old son, Hari. Nina's friend, Surinder, who is the sister to Hari's father, suggests that Zoe might work out as a cover for Nina while she is on maternity leave. At the same time, a nanny position opens in the town, for a family of three children, with a largely absent father and a mysteriously absent mother. Zoe, knowing she hasn't nothing to lose, takes the position, and falls in love with the Scottish town, its people, and the family she is gradually bringing back together. Hari thrives, as well. The ending is not yet necessarily happy ever after, but the makings are there.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Combo: 5 (10.3)
Total: 25
This is to replace Post 57
Post 875 Kim wrote: "20.3 Post ModernLove by Toni Morrison
This is one of the few books I am posting without a review, as I just don't know what to make of it. I'll reread it again in a fe..."
I'm sorry, Kim. This is a book that has a YA Assignment shelving at BPL and it has no Lexile score. Task, but no styles. (Doesn't affect your finishers awards.)
OK...for what it's worth, I have decided to post the few books that I have read this season. 10.3 Winter
Read any book by an author whose first name begins with a D, J, or F.
The Breaking Point by Jefferson Bass
Task Points: 10
Combo: 5 (10.4 - B)
Season Total Points: 15
Another style that might work is combo with 10.5. Jefferson Bass is a writing team, of which Bill Bass is the forensic scientist whose life experiences are told through the character of Dr. Bill Brockton. Since I wasn't sure enough, I did not claim the combo.
ValentineRead any book whose title begins with the letters in CHERUBS. Leading articles may be ignored.
The Hollow by Nora Roberts
Task Points: 10
Season Total Points: 25
20.3 Post ModernRead any book by one of the authors on this list of Postmodern Writers.
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
Task Points: 20
Jumbo: 5 (589p)
Season Total Points: 50
ScienceRead any book where science or a scientist is the focus.
Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom
Review:
OK...I just have to say a few words about this book. I initially expected it to be about Nazis atrocities...or at least to mention that this had occurred under their reign. Nope. Turns out to be one of the things that Nazis did not do!
In fact, the group most responsible for this event were doctors! It seems that, way before the Nazis, back when there was body snatching for medical schools in need of cadavers, some of those physicians saved skin and covered books with it. There were many reasons why they did this, but none made sense to me even though they were bibliophiles.
One of the results of the research into many of the books found in various libraries showed that, frequently, books on the topic of women's health were bound in a woman's skin. Yech!
Overall, this practice went out of fashion when laws were passed to protect the integrity of the body after death...and more bodies were made available for research and training.
I learned a lot from this book...including correcting my thoughts about Nazi atrocities; but it was a dark, dark topic.
Task Points: 20
Review: 10
Season Total Points: 80
20.6 CaribbeanRead a book set at least 75% in one of these Caribbean countries.
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
Setting: Trinidad
Task Points: 20
Combo: 5 (10.8 - pub 2009)
Season Total Points: 105
10.4 Valentine'sThe Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
Low Lexile
+10 Task
Grand Total: 420 pts
10.4 Valentine’s The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman
4 stars
I love this series. This instalment sees our intrepid librarian Irene and her former apprentice turned love interest/fellow ambassador Kai, who happens to be a dragon, working with an unlikely group of allies to steal a painting. The strength of this series is the premise, an interdimensional library that gathers rare books to stabilize the forces of chaos (fae influence) and order (dragon influence). This allows the author to send her characters to all kinds of different worlds and to draw on different source material in each installment. I particularly liked that this one featured a villain in the vein of James Bond, and then also had the characters exploring a world set in the 1980s. The last few in the series have started to include an overarching story thread that we are getting a little bit of info about in each book and this is really fascinating as the first few didn’t really connect to each other.
+10 Task
Task Total: 15
Missed Points from post 733: +5
Season Total: 945
20.4 ScienceFirst Light by Rebecca Stead
(no combo middle grade)
The main character goes to Greenland on a scientific expedition with his parents who are climate scientists.
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 965
10.7 El NinaMoon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Three Stars
I loved the premise of this novel: society collapses and the characters must survive the harsh northern Ontario winter by living off the land in their traditional Anishinaabe way. But I was expecting more of a thriller than I got. The writing was very atmospheric and I felt like I was brought along on the journey with the characters but there wasn’t enough plot for my liking. There are well developed themes woven throughout the story, particularly about colonialism and the harm done to Indigenous people by numerous policies both historic and currently present in Canada. This is an own voices story and I really enjoyed the perspective of life on reserve. I don’t think enough Canadians understand what it means to live on reserve and this book really gave an honest look at what that means (at least in Northern Ontario, there are reserves all across Canada and they are not all the same though they are treated the same by the Canadian Government). Overall, this book is technically very sound, I am just not the kind of reader who enjoys a book that is all about characters and themes, I need more plot than this offered me.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 985
15.9 In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
SHIRT
12C-S (#4), 11E-H (3 members 5 stars), 5C-I (In), 1E-R (Waywa r d Child r en, 10E-T (no the)
+30 Task
Season total = 470
10.4House of M by Brian Michael Bendis
Graphic Novel so no styles but here’s my review anyway
Eh.
I picked this up because I am loving WandaVision, and it seems like every article about it says “go read the fantastic house of M comics!”
Yeah, no. Not fantastic.
It has potential, and it is a nice springboard for a reader’s imagination, but the book itself? Boring, with a super thin story (despite a great premise), dull art (seriously, why all the praise for the art?), and extremely flat characters.
It’s a good idea wrapped up in everything that gives comics a bad name.
Honestly, it seems more like a gimmick than a story. Tons of cameos, little alternate-reality moments to hook a reader, but there’s so much that nothing can be the focus. There’s really no heart.
Peter Parker has some moments that could really be something (and for all I know they were explored in Spider Man issues) but it’s just a hint before the next panel moves onto more nonsense. Was that the point? Is the actual story scattered among a million other Marvel titles? I’m not saying House of M should have been totally self-contained, but I expect some payoff. This was like a trailer, setting up a story without delivering one.
And crappy plot execution aside, I am legit pissed off at this. Every female character has her clothes falling off, including little Layla. She’s a preteen (drawn without exploding bosoms) and yet still her tank top straps are always perilously close to just falling apart. Gross.
And that’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the women in the story. But I know, I know... what did I expect? I guess a little nuance. Something other that sex-toy or insanity? Silly me.
In my personal in-print comics collection, I have exactly one Marvel volume, and that was a gift and I did not care for it.
The MCU is good fun, but I doubt I’ll bother with the source material again.
+10 task
Season total = 480
15.1 Name of the Game Round 2Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
T (13b born 1936)
A (3b Albania)
G. (7d #752)
TAG
Task -15 pts
Before 1996 - 5 pts
Task Total - 20 pts
*do we still need another book for Albania for our group challenge?
this book was also translated into English
15.2 Name of the Game Round 2Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump by Michael Cohen
H - (11d)
A - (3c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...)
R - (1b )
E - (16 e)
HARE
Task - 15 pts
NF. - 5 pts
Task Total - 20 pts
15.3 Name of the Game Round 2No Apparent Distress: A Doctor's Coming of Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine by Rachel Pearson
G - (7b)
E - (2b)
N - (6e)
T - (10b - 2017)
GENT
Task - 15 pts
NF - 5 pts
Task Total - 20 pts
15.4 Name of the Game round 2The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them by David Richo
E - (2d)
N - (6d)
D - (4e)
END
Task - 15 pts
NF - 5 pts
Task Total - 20 pts
15.5 Name of the game Round 2Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri
S - (12c #5)
T - (10e)
Y - (14b Italy)
STY
Task - 20 pts
* this book also translated into English
15.5 The Name of the GameThe Calamity Caféby Gayle Leeson
2b-E author has 2 e's in their name
14D-Y mystery
8D-wild card-S
Word: Yes
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 175
20.4 ScienceEntangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
Merlin Sheldrake is an engaging writer who shares his sense of awe when he investigates the mysteries of fungi. This book is not a dull textbook since Sheldrake uses his gift of storytelling to show the natural world to us.
We often think of food when we consider the world of fungi. Mushrooms and truffles are the fruiting bodies of fungi. We use yeast to bake bread and ferment fruit into alcohol. Fungi are also used to make cheese. Fungi can also metabolize more unusual substances--rocks, plastics, oil, and even radioactive waste. Work is being done to convert recycled material into useful items using mycofabrication.
Symbiosis is an important quality of fungi. Most fungi exist as branching networks of tubular cells called mycelium. Underground fungi supply nitrogen, phosphorus, water, and other soil nutrients to the roots of plants. In return, plants supply sugars and lipids, carbon compounds made through photosynthesis, to the fungi. Lichens and seaweeds are other examples of symbiosis where algae and fungi act as partners that both benefit.
Sheldrake interviews mycologists all over the world, and also tells about his own experiments in the field in Panama. He also tries psychedelics in a controlled clinical setting since they have a recent use to treat deep depression. Drugs made from fungi have been used for organ transplant patients to prevent rejection. We can't forget penicillin, a wonder drug that is still widely used.
This is just a small sample of the many ways that fungi are important. Not only are fungi entangled with themselves, but they are entangled with their physical environment and other organisms, including humans. Who knew that fungi could be so fascinating?
+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.4 Valentine's
+10 review
Task total: 35
Season total: 555
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Reading with Style
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The Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere
If you like Hallmark movies, this book is for you. Short, inspirational, and faith-based, this book by Donna VanLiere grabbed me from the New Book shelf. And like many books that do that, it turned out to be the latest installment in a series that I hadn't read any of the previous ones. I now have the first two on hold.
The book is told through a dual timeline - 1972 and 2012, and follows two young families throughout a year in their life. What ties the families together is a handmade walnut table and a stack of recipes written by a loving mother for her newlywed daughter. The story of the original owners and how the second family works to find them - to return the family heirloom recipes makes for an enjoyable holiday read. A cup of tea, a warm fireplace, and a blanket or cat in your lap completes the setting.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Combo 10.3: 5
Total: 25
Season Total: 2035