Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
SU 21 Completed Tasks
10.8 - Page Count - 400-449 - Round 3All the Shiny Things by Robin Mahle
+10 task - 430pgs
Task total: 10
Grand total: 560
15.10 TDoSA Fire Story by Brian Fies
Deedee (I'm so glad to have found this on your shelf! I hadn't even heard of it before and so glad to have read it!)
Oof.
This graphic novel memoir documents the author's loss of his home in the 2017 Northern California wildfires. I think it tells the story better than any news broadcast could, any podcast or NPR interview could, more than a written memoir could. You see the devastation (mixed in with the drawn cels are photos taken by the author) and hear the firsthand trauma and loss. It was powerful and scary--it felt absolutely immediate, like I was living through all of that devastation right alongside him.
It was one of the more powerful things I've read in recent memory and I was not expecting that. Easily 5 stars...now excuse me while I pack my go-bag (grandpa's service Bible from WWII; the quilt my grandma gave me as a wedding present; my dad's teddy bear from when he was little; piles of pictures spanning from my infancy to my wedding--thank heaven for the cloud, that more recent pictures are all safely ensconced there!...all the things I would be devastated to lose but wouldn't think about grabbing in an emergency....I know it's all just stuff, but Fies points out in this graphic novel: "But it was our stuff. Stuff we created. Stuff we treasured. Stuff from our ancestors we wanted our descendants to have. Stuff is a marker of time and memory. It's roots.").
+45 Task
+5 Review
+100 Completion Bonus
Task total: 150
Season total: 1815
10.8 Page Count 400 - 449This Virtual Night by C.S. Friedman
448 pages
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 1470
Opps It looks like I didn't post a book10.3 - Page Count 100 - 149
Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus
Post: 10
Season total : 145
20.5 RtMIf I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Set in Seoul 80%
Country: South Korea
Country: Asia
When I first started this, I almost wondered if it was supposed to be sci-fi...then I realized: Nope, it's just South Korean. The obsessive preoccupation with plastic surgery, beauty, money, and K-pop stars...the misogyny, the "room salons" (brothels), the class disparity. I felt very foreign reading this book, which switches between the voices of four women who live in the same building: Ara, the mute hairdresser who is in love with a K-pop star from afar; Kyuri, a room salon girl who is so deep in hock to the Madame that she'll be selling her body for the rest of her life; Miho, an orphan whose art talent secured her a scholarship in New York; and Wonna, a married lady who is pregnant and trying to navigate the politics of the workplace and the inbuilt misogyny in that arena.
We get virgin, whore, maiden, and mother (even crone, in the form of the Madam, though she's only a small role)...all of the tropes to show the different trials that women face in South Korea (though, of course, those trials aren't contained by borders).
It was good...but it took me a week and a half to finish a book that was fewer than 300 pages, so it didn't really grab and hold my attention.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 1840
20.4 Riding the MetroMarta Oulie by Sigrid Undset (published 1907)
Set in Oslo
Country: Norway
Continent: Europe
A simple, quick read that packs a punch and feels very modern. This is a fascinating look into the soul of a character who is figuring out that love isn't always enough, and neither is lust. Her anguish is clear, and so is her intelligence.
It's a very realistic story -- Marta struggles with the disappointments and regret that come with hindsight. The story also doesn't shy away from discussing the struggles and restrictions women faced as wives and mothers 100 years ago.
+20 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 30
Season total: 280
15.7 TDoSMy Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris
Rachel W > Maksym Karpovets
From the Wikipedia entry Ferris eschewed panels because she felt that she needed freedom and that readers needed a visually dense experience.
That density made this a very difficult read. Not just in an intellectually challenging way, no - this book often hurt to read. I loved the art, but the cramped text and the interference of the notebook lines made portions straight up painful and a slog.
It was bad enough that I was going to re-work my reading challenge plans and abandon ship, but I picked it up one more time and that is when Anka’s backstory began. Here, the art and the narrative has room to breathe. The frenetic pace slows, and it’s captivating.
It was enough to push me through the return to the rest of the crowded storylines.
This in many ways is a masterpiece, but for me personally it would have hit harder with a tighter focus… every big theme and idea the author had is included, and honestly the ending storyline of personal loss was diminished by being squashed in with the mystery and the gangsters and this and that. Life is messy and doesn’t come in easy-to-parse increments, but I like my art to help me deal with that mess, not keep me floundering in it.
Also, it ends abruptly, which after all those pages was annoying. I don’t mind the lack of resolution or the tease for a Vol 2 that is still pending, but the book felt like my executive dysfunction on paper. Rabbit holes and side-quests with the original goal abandoned and a new side quest tabled due to burnout.
All that crabbing aside, this is well worth a read. I’m merely justifying my 4-not-5 stars.
Task = 30
Review = 5
Task total = 35
Season total = 825
20.10 Riding the MetroA Different Dawn (Nina Guerrera #2) by Isabella Maldonado
City: Phoenix
Country: USA
Continent: North America
Review
The Cipher (Nina Guerrera #1) was an Amazon Prime First Reads offer and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I love Free books (who doesn't!) but when it comes to free ebook offer, I have my doubts... Nina was such a strong protagonist and the story a thrilling page turner that when I saw this second book available on NetGalley, I jumped on the chance.
A Different Dawn is just as thrilling and page turning as the first book. As Nina and her team needs to learn to work together as a team, they travelled to Phoenix where a possible serial killer began and has just recently, committed an atrocious act against a young family. As the team raced against time and danger to catch this unsub, he himself worked behind the scene to throw them off their game.
Nina faced her terribly violent past in The Cipher and you'd think the poor girl may have had enough but this Girl Warrior is uncovering more of her mysterious past in this latest instalment of the series. Even as much as I loved the ending to this book, I was scoffing at how both mysteries conveniently centred on Nina's past... What's left for the next book? Maybe now we can move on...? We'll see.
Last night, I started reading thinking that I'll just read for an hour and have an early night but I just couldn't put this down. While I struggled against my unbelief that yet again, Nina stumbled into something from her past, I also wanted to find out what it is! So I chalked up another late night reading but a very satisfactory one.
My thanks to Thomas & Mercer for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts
+35 Task
+5 Review
+100 Finisher
+50 10 different countries
+100 6 different continents
Post Total: 290
Season Total: 1,315
15.7 TDoSBlankets by Craig Thompson
Maksym Karpovets > Carrie
OUUUUCH. Oof. There’s nothing like the queasy nostalgia of first love. And mine happened right about the same time as his, and that same damn Cure song is forever burned into my memory. But with less tender fondness than his memory, although he did burn everything sooooooo yeah.
And the Church bit… ugh. Yep. My family just links I’m the typical “lapsed”, assuming I just don’t attend services but that my faith is still there, dormant. NOPE. I “came out” at one point but, well… it’s easier for them to think I can still be “saved”. UGH I hadn’t thought about those dynamics in a bit.
This stirred up feelings that I really did not want to have stirred. And for that reason, I was going to drop a star, because it plopped me back into the most uncomfortable parts of my 90s coming-of-age and I did not like it. But it does capture all that raw vulnerability, the loneliness, the exhilaration, and the art is lovely and flowing, very evocative.
+45 task
+ 5 Review
Task total = 50
Season total = 875
20.1 Riding the MetroRound 2
Bono: The Rescue Cat Who Helped Me Find My Way Home by Helen Brown
City: New York
Country: USA
Continent: North America
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1,335
10.4 Page Count 200 - 249Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
247 pages
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 1490
10.2 Page Count 100 - 149The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
137 pages
+10 Task
+5 before 1996 (published 1988
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1505
15.10 TDoSRuin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo
Rated 5-stars by Anika and Madly Jane
+45 Task
+100 Completion
Post Total: 145
Season Total: 1,480
15.7 Riding the MetroThe Filigree Ball: Being a Full and True Account of the Solution of the Mystery Concerning the Jeffrey-Moore Affair by Anna Katharine Green
City: Washington, DC
Country: USA
Continent: North America
Set in Washington, DC, this started out on a dark night when a light was seen in the window of an empty mansion. There is also a shutter loose and flapping a bit. "Oh no," I thought, "I'm not sure I'm up for gothic." But this quickly loses its gothicity, though, and turns into a decent police procedural. I say 'decent' but only because this was first published in 1903. For example, the policeman measures fingers in the dust, but no finger prints.
It is said of Anna Katharine Green that she writes well-plotted and legally accurate mysteries. I have read some of her series fiction and obviously am willing to come back to her time and again. Still, this is very early detective fiction and one should not expect from her what we demand in the novels that come much later. I thought there were a few more coincidences than is reasonable. I will say, though, that the ending/solution was entirely unexpected, and also completely fit the characters.
I was very interested in the progress of this story, and for the fitness of the ending especially, I'm giving it 4-stars. I admit that might be one star more than it's actually worth.
+25 Task
+ 5 Review
+ 5 Before 1996 (1903)
Task total = 35
Season total = 595
20.8- Riding the MetroFirst Love - Ivan Turgenev by Ivan Turgenev
set in Moscow, Russia, Europe
This was an enjoyable read...and the writing and/or translation was helpful in not making it overburdened with confusing Russian names, phrases, idioms, etc. as found in many other Russian works of the period. The story is relatively simple...a man relates to his friends the story of his first crush.... he was 16 and the woman 21. The woman was a neighbor....and a flirt with all the prominent men.... she was minor royalty living in relatively modest means. The boy goes through the familiar gamut of emotions throughout the ups and downs of his dealings with the woman. A good read. Four stars.
Task=25
review=5
pre 1996=5
Task total= 35
Season Total=935
10.1; 10.2; 10.3;10.4 10.5; .....; 10.7; 10.8; .....; 10.10
✔20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10
2nd round: 20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8
10.7 Page Count 350 pg - 399 pgBig Sky by Kate Atkinson
I like this series, and I liked this book and will give it 4*. However, I always have to remember that Atkinson’s style in these books is very meandering. You have to put up with that. (It didn’t help that my reading time of this book was sporadic.) So, I struggled a little with that, but when she ties it up – boy, does she tie it up(!) - it is just great! I loved the resolution, and wish there were more Jackson Brodie books to read.
10 task
5 review
______
15
Running total: 1015
10.10 Page Count 500 pages or moreSunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly
Martha Hall Kelly has gone further back in time to the Civil War for the third book in her Lilac Girls trilogy. Each of the three books has a flower name in the title, and can be read as a stand-alone fictional book about the real women in the Ferriday-Woolsey family. "Sunflower Sisters" tells the stories of three women, each who has an important relationship with her sister(s).
Georgy Woolsey is one of the middle sisters of a wealthy New York family who volunteers for the abolitionist cause, and gathers supplies for the Union army. Georgy is trained by Dr Elizabeth Blackwell as a nurse, and is sent to treat soldiers in Washington DC, Gettysburg, and Maryland. Georgy is strong, intelligent, and shows that a woman is capable of assisting the doctors in surgery.
Jemma and her parents are slaves on a Maryland plantation while her sister is enslaved nearby. Jemma has been educated to read and write by her previous owner. She's now working for Anne-May, a self-centered, cruel woman who is running the plantation financially into the ground as she indulges her appetite for luxury items. Jemma's family live in fear of being whipped, raped, or hung by the abusive overseer. They hope someday to escape to freedom.
Maryland was a neutral border state during the Civil War so families and neighbors were torn apart as some fought for the Confederate Army while others joined the Union war effort. In New York City there was significant fundraising for the Union Army and for the abolitionist movement. There were also New York draft riots by the poor Irish who were being forced to fight in the Army while many rich men paid someone to take their place. The book starts off slowly, but picks up pace as Georgy and Jemma's stories converge at Gettysburg. "Sunflower Sisters" shows us a troubled, divided country through the alternating voices of three very different women. The author's notes give lots of interesting historical information about the Woolsey family and the era.
+10 task (516 pages)
+ 5 review
Task total: 15
Season total: 560
20.8 RtMOur Man in Havana by Graham Greene
An espionage farce. A Havana based vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited by British intelligence as a spy. Unfortunately he does not know what he is doing and when real spies seem to become involved, things start to get messy. This is a humorous story with underlying theme of the importance of espionage in managing the relationships between countries. Nothing is what it seems and even the characters involved have no idea how things have gotten out of control
25 pts 20.8 R t M
5 pts review
5 pts Pre 1996
Total Task 35 points
Total Season: 470pts.
10.1 10.2 10.3 ... 10.5 10.6 ... ... ... 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 ... ... ... ... ...
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6. 20.7 20.8 ... ...
Countries: England, United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Cuba,
Continents Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia, Africa, South America
10.7 Page Count 350 - 399Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin
348 pages
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 1515
20.9- Riding the MetroThe Master Key by Masako Togawa
I found this mystery to be very clever. A large building which houses single women in post-war Tokyo needs to be moved a few hundred feet to make way for a new highway. The reader learns about a few of the women just before the move, during the preparations and afterwards. A missing child, a master key that keeps going missing, a missing violin. Somehow all these strange events are inter-related. Again, a revenge theme that somehow pleases me. 4 stars....maybe more.
Task=25
review=5
pre 1996=5
Task total= 35
Season Total=970
10.1; 10.2; 10.3;10.4 10.5; .....; 10.7; 10.8; .....; 10.10
✔20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10
2nd round: 20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9
20.7 Riding the MetroJulius Caesar by William Shakespeare
City: Rome
Country: Italy
Continent: Europe
+25 task
+ 5 before 1996 (published 1599)
Task total: 30
Season total: 590
20.2 Riding the MetroRound 2
The Long Game by Simon Rowell
City: Melbourne
Country: Australia
Continent: Oceania
Review
The Long Game is a solid police procedural featuring a much likeable detective protagonist and her clever service dog, Harry. On Detective Zoe Mayer's first day back to work, she caught a homicide case which appear to be an open and shut case but a tip and her instinct led her to believe that there is much more to this case than what's obvious. This, in turn, made her unpopular with her colleagues and a target.
Many crime novels these days feature protagonists who are broken and most have either broken or in fracturing domestic situations. While Zoe has her own issues to work through, I liked that her own personal life isn't. It isn't perfect but then no one's is. She's got Harry to assist her in her daily struggles but she appears to be doing all the right things and is recovering well. She's a terrifically strong character, intelligent and determined, and confident. And lovable Harry - everyone loves him and being a dog lover myself, I loved having him actively participate in this novel.
The mystery behind Zoe's PTSD was just as intriguing as the murder mystery she was investigating. As Zoe goes investigating the murder, readers also get glimpses of the incident that led to her PTSD. I must say that twists & conclusions to both mysteries are very satisfying.
I am not at all sure whether this is meant to be a stand alone or a series. At the end of the book, I did think this feels like a first book in a series but yet, it's possible that it's a stand alone but with author/publisher leaving enough of a vague notion for a possibility for a series, if sales are good. I do hope that there will be more books as I have really enjoyed this time spent in company with Zoe & Harry.
My thanks to Text Publishing for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,505
10.9 Page Count 450 pg - 499 pgClyde Fans by Seth
Seth’s magnum opus. This is the only graphic novel (or picture novel as Seth calls it) that has been nominated for the Giller Prize. There are many things to like about this book – the art, the story; but my favorite thing is how it began. Seth saw an old storefront ‘Clyde Fans’ in a part of Toronto I spent many years working in. I probably saw the same store. Having this personal connection with the setting added to the nostalgia for me.
The story itself is very melancholy. It is a kind of a love story to the old days of small businesses and traveling salesmen, in Southern Ontario (although it is done in a way that it could be anywhere in Canada or the US). At the same time it is a insightful look at choices made and how family history can bear on these choices; being lonely within your own family; and never being able to break out of your own shell. The picture novel as a whole is poignant, and deserves to be read closely. 4*
Once again, I’d like to mention the beautiful job Drawn and Quarterly did producing this book.
10 task
5 review
_____
15
100 finish bonus
______
115
Running total: 1130
10.10 PCBlankets by Craig Thompson
I looked at several "Best of" lists for graphic novels when deciding which ones to read this season. This one showed up on *a lot* of lists, so I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.
It was not at all what I expected. Firstly: it is giant and heavy and carrying it home from the library counted as my workout for the day (to be fair: I was carrying five books of similar size, so it was moderately strenuous). Secondly: it was a memoir, walking you through a difficult childhood, crises of faith, and the roller coaster of first love. I wasn't expecting that (I know...I should have...I'm sure it was in the synopses on all of those lists I was looking at...but after looking at so many, I only remembered titles and not descriptions). Thirdly: I was not expecting to identify so strongly with the story: the cruelty of kids; the self-discovery and self-doubt of the teenage years (and very specifically of the early '90s, when I was also in high school...the band posters on the walls and the songs they reference were very much a part of my life); the intense interest and desire to belong in a faith practiced by everyone in your community and the eventual departing from said faith...
It definitely put me through the wringer, emotionally, but at its essence it was lovely and heartbreaking and infinitely relatable.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 1855
20.1 Riding the MetroA Christmas Odyssey by Anne Perry
set in London
Country England
Continent: Europe
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1535
15.6 TDoSThe Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
Deedee—>Rebekah
Another excellent novel by Amitav Ghosh. In the first of his novels that I read, Sea Of Poppies: Book One Of The Ibis Trilogy, history is a setting that a story with an interesting caste of characters play out their story. In The Hungry Tide, the physical setting is a character in the story. This book is a more traditional historical fiction in which the history of India, Burma and Malay is told through three families. From an Indian orphan arriving in Mandalay at the time of the British taking the king into exile through WWII to Aung San Suu Kyi speaking from house arrest in the 90’s.
Occasionally Ghosh drops into unnecessary exposition.
+30 task
+5 review
Task total: 35
Season total: 260
20.10 RTMCase Histories by Kate Atkinson
Cambridge, England, Europe
+35 pts - Task
+100 pts - Completion Bonus
+50 pts - 10 different countries (1. USA, 2. New Zealand, 3. Cuba, 4. UAE, 5. Italy, 6. Egypt, 7. Russia, 8. South Africa, 9. Colombia, 10. England)
+100 pts - 5 Continents
285 pts - Total
15.1 TDoSRound 2
The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts #1) by M.R. Carey
Rated 5-stars by Anika and Natalie
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,520
15.2 Ten Degrees of SeparationThe House at Riverton by Kate Morton , rated 5 *s by Tanya and Mike.
+20 Task
Season Total: 90
15.3 Ten Degrees of SeparationThe Wright Brothers by David McCullough, rated 5 *s by Mike and Ian Jones.
+20 Task
Season Total: 110
20.2 Riding the MetroChild of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus by Carolina Maria de Jesus, set in Sao Paolo, Brazil
+20 Task Points
+ 5, 1st pub'd in 1960, before 1996.
Season Total: 135
20.3 Riding the MetroThe Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, set in London, England.
+20 Task Points
Season Total: 155
20.4 Riding the MetroCrick Crack, Monkey by Merle Hodge, set in San Juan, Trinidad.
+20 Task Points
+5 1st pub'd in 1970, before 1996
Season Total: 180
20.5 Riding the MetroThe Drowning River: A Mystery in Florence by Christobel Kent, set in Florence, Italy.
+20 Task Points
Season Total: 200
15.8 Riding the MetroHavana Best Friends by José Latour
City: Havana
Country: Cuba
Continent: So America (as far as this challenge goes!)
I found this because I was looking for something set in a city in the Caribbean. I'm pretty sure I was nosing around at Stop You're Killing Me. (One could easily lose hours there, by the way.) Anyway, it was just what I wanted to be reading at this time.
It opens with a couple jogging around a park in Havana, when the man stops, bends over, and appears to have trouble breathing. He says he thinks it may be heat prostration. So they walk across the street and ring the bell of an apartment and ask if they could have a glass of water. It didn't take much for me to realize this was a ruse.
The information given in the GR description or on the blurb at the back of the book isn't revealed in the book until about page 100 or so. Normally I would think that would begin to be spoilerish. In a way, I'm glad I did know as it increased my eagerness of how things were going to work out. As this is definitely thriller rather than pure mystery, eagerness to know how things work out is the point of reading the genre. Latour does this well. My anxiety level increased especially in the last 75 pages.
Latour's first books were written in Spanish while he was living in Cuba. This was his first work in English after he left that country and settled in Canada. Thrillers are not my go to, so I'm not in a hurry to add another by him to my already over-burdened wish list. On the other hand, if one were staring me in the face, I'd pick it up in a hot tick. 4-stars, only because I thought there was a bit more coarse language than was needed.
+25 Task
Task total = 25
Season total = 620
10.9 Page Count 450 pg - 499 pgWaverley by Walter Scott
I became more interested in this novel after learning that it is one of, if not, the first historical novel in the western tradition. I was expecting something more similar to Scott's Ivanhoe...but this novel was so much more romanticized...at least it seemed to me. Here, an aristocratic English officer, Edward Waverley, travels to family friends in Scotland....where he is gradually enthralled with the Highland traditions...and two women in particular. I did not have the patience to look up the definition of all the unfamiliar words since it was already difficult to decipher the Scottish dialects into modern-day English. The novel offers high praise to Scottish traditions of honor and faith....and some nibbles of beliefs in the paranormal. This is the first in the series....and I will try the next one...but somewhat reluctantly because it requires so much work. Three stars
Task=10
review=5
pre 1996=5
Task total= 20
Season Total=990
10.1; 10.2; 10.3;10.4 10.5; .....; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9; 10.10
✔20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10
2nd round: 20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9
20.6 Riding the MetroStim by Kevin Berry
Set in Christchurch
Country: New Zealand
Continent: Oceana
+25 Task
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 415
20.7 Riding the MetroThe Book of Venice: A City in Short Fiction by Gianfranco Bettin
Set in Venice
Country: Italy
Continent: Europe
+25 Task
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 440
15.3 TDoSChildren of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Rated 5* by Katy and Angelbis
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 455
Page Count Round #210.6 300-349p
Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth
+10 Task:
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 465
Page Count Round #210.9 450-499p
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
+10 Task:
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 475
15.10 TDoS Rd 2 Night by Elie Wiesel
I bought this quite awhile ago at a library book sale. I knew it was one of the important books that you should read. But I let it sit for a long time, because I was afraid to read it. I knew it would be devastating. I think the thing that saved it (as a tolerable read) is the matter of fact, low lexile writing. It was like reportage, and that made it bearable. 5*
5* Chinook
45 task
5 review
5 >1996
_____
55
100 finisher bonus
_____
155
Running total: 1285
10.1 Page Count 75-150Gravemould and Ectoplasm by Barbara Hambly
47 pages
Zadig; Or, the Book of Fate by Voltaire
88 pages
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Completion bonus 100
Season Total: 1645
20.8 Riding the MetroThe Silence by Don DeLillo
City: New York City
Country: United States
Continent: North America
The TV screen on Superbowl Sunday 2022 goes silent in a Manhattan apartment. A plane has to crash land as its electronics suddenly won't work. All technology has been silenced in an unknown apocalyptic event. The reader is experiencing this along with the five people in the New York apartment.
The dialogue has an emotionless, almost robotic, feeling to it so I could not feel connected to any of the characters. However, the book has many interesting ideas to think about as our world becomes so reliant on technology.
+25 task
+ 5 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 620
15.2 TDoSRound 2
A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik
Rated 5-stars by Natalie and Kate
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1,540
10.1 PCWitches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich - pub. 46 pages
Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill 48 pages
+10 pts -Task (total pages = 94 )
20.2 Riding the MetroA Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi
set in Algiers
Country Algeria
Continent: Africa
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1665
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The House of the Scorpion (other topics)5 Centimeters per Second (other topics)
Some Kids I Taught & What They Taught Me (other topics)
The World That We Knew (other topics)
A Poem for Every Summer Day (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Nancy Farmer (other topics)Makoto Shinkai (other topics)
Kate Clanchy (other topics)
Alice Hoffman (other topics)
Allie Esiri (other topics)
More...
Three by Robert P French
City - Vancouver
Country - Canada
Continent - North America
+20 task
Task total: 20
Grand total: 550