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SU 21 Completed Tasks
15.4 Ten Degrees of SeparationThe Black Ice by Michael Connelly, rated 5*s by Ian Jones and Potjy.
Task Points = 20
Before 1996 = 5 (1st pub'd 1993)
Previous Points: 305
Total Points So Far: 330
Completely messed up the point totals here. I reposted below in message 670.15.5 Ten Degress of Separation
Night Film by Marisha Pessl, rated 5*s by Potjy and Sam.
Task Points = 30
Previous Points: 305
Total Points So Far: 335
10.8 PCThe Hate U Give (444 pages) by Angie Thomas
I know there has been big buzz around this book ever since it came out. I know a movie has been made based on it. All my friends who have read it have *raved* about it...but I KNEW I was going to bawl and fume and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries and I just never quite felt up to that level of sorrow/frustration for 444 pages.
I'm glad I decided to face up to it. It was an important read. It was heart-wrenching and funny and real and I loved the characters and hated the situations they found themselves in. I'm grateful to the author for not shying away from the big themes (racial inequality, police brutality, economic disparity...) while also giving the reader moments of light and laughter.
+10 Task
+5 Review
+100 Completion bonus
Task total: 115
Season total: 2060
Page Count 10.3The Many Lives of Pusheen the Cat by Claire Belton
I won this book through Good Reads. Apparently Pusheen is a quasi-famous cartoon cat that I had never heard of before. The book is full of fanciful illustrations and text featuring Pusheen is many different personas....as a detective, a dinosaur, a unicorn, mermaid....you get the idea. There is also a portion of the book depicting the peculiar habits of Pusheen and other cats. Cute...but not really my sort of thing.
Task=10
review=5
Task total= 15
Season Total=1425
✔Page Count: 10.1; 10.2; 10.3;10.4 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9; 10.10
Page Count 2nd round: ....; .....; 10.3
✔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; 20.10
3rd round: 20.1
10.6 Page Count 300-349Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks
311 pages
+10 Task
+5 Before 1996 (published 1994)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1755
20.4 Riding the MetroThe Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
set in Mexico City
Country Mexico
Continent: South America
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1775
10.7 PCThe Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful Motherbaby Business by Patty Brennan 396 pages
Task total -10 pts
15.6 TDoSRound 2
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Rated 5-stars by Jama and Lisa
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,640
Completely messed up my point total in my last post. Reposting.15.5 Ten Degress of Separation
Night Film by Marisha Pessl, rated 5*s by Potjy and Sam.
Task Points = 30
Previous Points: 330
Total Points So Far: 360
15.6 Ten Degress of SeparationThe Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, rated 5*s by Sam and Karen Michelle Burns.
Task Points = 30
Previous Points: 360
Total Points So Far: 390
20.6 - Paris - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo +25 task
+5 pre-1996
Task total: 30
Season total: 415
10.1 ; 10.2 ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; 10.9 ; 10.10
… ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
20.1 ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; … ; … ; … ; …
Cities: Perth, Edmonton, London, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Paris
Countries: Australia, Canada, England, US, S. Africa, France
Continents: Oceania, N. America, Europe, Africa
20.7 - Chicago - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson+25 task
Task total: 25
Season total: 440
10.1 ; 10.2 ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; 10.9 ; 10.10
… ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
20.1 ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; … ; … ; …
Cities: Perth, Edmonton, London, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Paris, Chicago
Countries: Australia, Canada, England, US, S. Africa, France
Continents: Oceania, N. America, Europe, Africa
20.8 RtMHorrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Set in Cleveland, Ohio (pop. 385K)
Country: USA
Continent: North America
If Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted happened in an IKEA and wasn't nearly as well written, you'd get this book.
I was drawn in by the cover, which looks like the cover to an IKEA catalog...it made me chuckle at first, but when you look at the pictures on the wall more closely you see that it's a ghost trying to get through the wall. Immediately intrigued. Should learn my lesson already, deciding to read a book based solely on its cover...
It starts out moderately humorous and you see the potential for creepiness (every time I walk into an IKEA, I see the potential for creepiness...), but then it devolves into gruesome and entirely unbelievable and it lost me. It was a campfire horror story gone awry. Had such high hopes for a good scary story: still wishing for one :-(
+25 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 2060
15.7 TDoSFirestarter by Stephen King
Rebekah -->Valerie Zink
Horror movies and films are supposed to reflect what is scary to the audience at the time they are published/released. So according to Stephen King what was scary in the 70's was clandestine US government agencies, especially one that experimented with drugs, surveilled and killed citizens.
As I read the book, it seemed to me that King was writing a film script complete with dialog, detailed setting descriptions, even camera angles. The movie was filmed in 1984. (I will have to see if I can watch it to see how close it follows the book).
There is plenty of scary action but many of the characters are kind of two dimensional with rather unbelievable motives and actions. There are enough tender-hearted scenes and humor to somewhat relieve the horror. I did like the ending.
3-1/2 stars from me.
+30 task
+5 review
+5 pub. 1980
Task total: 40
Season total: 315
10.5 PCVacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman - 253 pages
Task Total - 10 pts
10.7 PCBloom (368 pages) by Kevin Panetta
I wanted to like this one...I did love all of the baking and the music that was going on, but I didn't love the main character or the disjointed feel to how the whole "love story" fell into place. Perhaps I would have liked it more had I not read so many exceptional graphic novels this season to compare it with.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2075
10.6 PCThe Last Book on the Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History’s Most Notorious Serial Killers (304 pages) by Ben Kissel
My husband is a fan of "The Last Podcast on the Left" which is what this book stems from. Books based on podcasts always seem a little iffy in my head, since what works best about a podcast (the conversational style, the voice inflection and intonation that set the mood) are lost on the page. Well, he ended up getting the Audible of this one so we listened to it and I'm still left cold.
I love true crime and serial killer stories--don't ask me why, I couldn't explain. Maybe it's a twisted case of "there but for the grace of God go I"? I especially like the true crime tales that focus on the victim's lives and the way that the killers were caught: it feels like a memorial to those who lost their lives. In this book, you have one voice reading the meat of the story and one voice piping in with comedic asides. It works ok in a podcast form--comic relief and all--but in the book (where they crammed in every joke they could, to the point that they just felt like filler), it feels relentless and cruel to the memories of those who died and like it definitely crossed a line. No thanks.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2090
20.6 Riding the MetroIstanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
Set in Istanbul
Country: Turkey
Continent: Asia
This is a blend of memoir and history, and I think it's very successful in that each aspect makes the other more interesting. It's not an all-encompassing history of Istanbul, it's the pieces that interest and/or impacted Pamuk. These choices shed a lot of light on Pamuk as a person and writer, and also give a feel for living in the city that many histories wouldn't give.
+25 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 30
Season total: 355
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 - - - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
Page Count Round #210.8 400-449p
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
+10 Task:
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 490
15.4 TDoSThe Other Americans by Laila Lalami
Rated 5* by Angelbis and Joy
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 510
20.8 Riding the MetroBangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
Set in Bangkok
Country: Thailand
Continent: Asia
+25 Task
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 535
20.9 Riding the MetroRun: Book One by John Lewis
Set in Atlanta, Georgia
Country: USA
Continent: North America
+25 Task
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 560
20.10 Riding the MetroElena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
Set in Buenos Aires
Country: Argentina
Continent: South America
+35 Task
+100 points finisher bonus
+100 points for reading cities on at least 5 continents
Post Total: 235
Season Total: 795
20.10 Riding the MetroBird in a Cage by Frédéric Dard
City: Paris
Country: France
Continent: Europe
I feel so lucky to have discovered Frédéric Dard. At the back of this edition was a short biography. Dard was friends with Georges Simenon and apparently was as prolific, though he published under numerous pseudonyms. This title equates very much with Simenon's roman durs. (And I will have to peruse that shelf, I just learned of it!)
In this very short novel, a man returns to Paris after an absence of 6 years. He visits his old apartment. His mother has been dead for 4 years. As this is a psychological novel, I admit that the circumstances of these absences didn't seem all that hard to guess and I assumed there was much more to learn. And, boy, was there! What I thought was sinister turned out to be innocent, and what I thought was innocent turned out to be sinister.
This is only my second Dard novel and another 4-stars only because it's hard to find a fifth star in a novel of only 130 pages. I'll try to see how many more such have been translated, though. Just so good!
+35 Task
+ 5 Review
+ 5 Before 1996 (1961)
Task total = 45
+100 - Finisher
+ 50 - 10 Countries
+100 - 5 Continents
Post total = 295
Season total = 970
15.7 TDoSRound 2
Dance of the Gods (Circle Trilogy #2) by Nora Roberts
Rated 5-stars by Lisa and Alicia
+30 Task
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,670
20.6 Riding the Metro The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
City: Cairo
Country: Egypt
Continent: Africa
I liked this, but I found the structure (?) or voice (?) jarring at times. More than likely it would flow much better in the original Arabic. It certainly was interesting to be so immersed in a different culture and way of thinking. Because the author lives in Cairo the narrative felt more authentic and embedded in the culture than novels written by ex-pats. 3*
25 task
5 review
____
30
Running total: 1340
10.10 Page Count 500p or moreBilly Summers by Stephen King
+10 Task (515 pages)
Post Total=10
Season Total=90
20.9 Riding the MetroAlone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
set in Berlin
Country: Germany
Continent: Europe
Loosely based on a true story, Alone in Berlin follows a naive German couple as they mount a personal campaign of resistance to the Nazis after the death of their son in the war. The book was first published in 1947 and had some success, but it wasn't translated into English until 2009, when it became an international bestseller.
I'm used to seeing physical copies of this shelved under Crime so I was expecting a spy thriller or mystery, but it's neither of those things. Otto and Anna are wonderful characters who grow in strength and resolve as the story continues, drawing on their sense of doing the right thing by their own standards, however bizarre or ineffectual it may seem to others.
+25 Task
+ 5 Review
+ 5 Pre-1996
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1040
10.2 100 - 149 ppThe Inferno by August Strindberg, 114 pp.
Task Points: 10
Before 1996: 5 (1st ed. 1897)
Previous Points: 390
Total Points So Far: 405
10.9 400 - 449 ppThe Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, ed. by Ellen Datlow, 400 pp.
Task Points: 10
BONUS POINTS for Completion of Page Count: 100
Revious Points: 405
Total Points So Far: 515
15.8 TDoSRound 2
Valley Of Silence (Circle Trilogy #3) by Nora Roberts
Rated 5-stars by Alicia and Ana Sofia
+45 Task
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 1,715
20.4 RtM- 2nd roundExcept the Dying by Maureen Jennings
City: Toronto
Country: Canada
Continent: North America
Task Total - 20 pts
15.9 TDoSThe Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Carrie > Deedee
YIKES. I don’t recommend reading this during a pandemic. Especially as a bedtime book.
As a very young child, I often felt like the world wasn’t real. I have a very clear memory of being in the car, watching the world go by, and trying to whip my head around fast enough to see the fakeness of it all. I thought that we were all cardboard cutouts that God moved around a cardboard stage. Myself included, except I *knew* it.
It sounds like that would be a terrifying belief, but I was a very little kid, trying to makes sense of the thing I was being taught religion-wise with the things I experienced, and pondering Big Ideas without any framework.
That sense of unreality did not last long; until reading this novel it was just a silly little kid memory. But DAMN, this book brought that feeling back, except *now* with the adult terror of being a puppet on a string.
This was so unnerving. It hit on pretty much all of my deepest fears. The only times it was not making me feel a bit sick to my stomach were the parts when George connected with Heather. Love is the salve to existential wounds.
+45 task
+5 review
+5 before 1996
Task total = 55
Season total = 930
10.6 - Page CountD: A Tale of Two Worlds by Michel Faber
304 pages
+10 Task
Task total = 10
Season total = 250
10.1 ; 10.2 ; 10.3 ; … ; … ; 10.6 ; … ; … ; 10.9 ; …
… ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
20.1 ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; … ; …
20.3 - Riding the Metro The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Set in Seoul, South Korea
Continent : Asia
Post: 20
Season total: 175
20.4 Riding The MetroThe Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden
Set in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Continent : Africa
Post: 20
Season total: 195
20.9 RtMCocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
Set in Melbourne
Country: Australia
Continent: Oceania
I've seen and enjoyed a few episodes of the Phryne Fisher mysteries on Netflix, but the book was sooo much better!
The writing is so clever and funny ("She had put on her lounging robe, of a dramatic oriental pattern of green and gold, an outfit not to be sprung suddenly on invalids or those of nervous tendencies"...that was the first and certainly not last time I found myself crinkling my eyes in delight)...I'm in love with the cast of characters and the setting in 1920s Melbourne is divine. Can't wait to read the next one!
+25 Task
+5 Review
+5 Pre-'96 (pub. 1989)
Task total: 35
Season total: 2125
15.7 Ten Degrees of SeparationThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has 5*s from Karen Michele Burns and Kazen.
It is a good thing I really like reading this book because it fits so many challenge tasks in so many challenges on- and offline. I appear to re-read it for some reason every year. I find it odd that so many of the editions have a cover which emphasizes Daisy, or some female which is, I suppose, a representation of Daisy. The name of the novel is not, after all, The Great Daisy or The Great Buchanan. The title of the book emphasizes what is, I think, the great importance of the book -- the idea of the Western Hero as a mythic archetype in American literature. Gatsby is from Chicago (which, to New Yorkers, is the wild west.) He stands as a symbol of opulence through a general outlaw character. And he is worshipped by women (Daisy and Olive), the men who would be his enemies (Daisy's husband worships Gatsby -- make no quarrel about that), and the men he gathers around him, symbolized by Nick, who definitely has a subliminal homosexual desire which masquerades as admiration for someone he knows he should not admire. It is not surprising that Gatsby's undoing is caused by the woman he falls for, though through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings. These are the ironic cosmic events which Lawrence Trilling would say inhabit the character of American literature from the 1890s onward. Gatsby embodies them in the anithero whom everyone worships. (Trilling uses Dreiser's An American Tragedy to support his view, but I think Gatsby does it much more efficiently. I know, as much as I like An American Tragedy, I do not want to read Dreiser every year.)
Task Points = 30
Before 1996 = 5 (1st pub'd 1925)
Review = 5
Previous Points: 515
Total Points So Far: 555
15.10 TDoSPaper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
Deedee > Burke Burke
Whooo! This was fun. But it was over far too fast, and ends with a cliffhanger. Unlike a lot of graphic novel collections, this is not a self-contained piece of a large arc; it is pure setup. That’s not a bad thing - but if you are checking this out of a library make sure other volumes are available or you will be sad.
The action takes place on All Saint’s Day, 1988, when a group of paper girls encounter some very weird shit on their early morning route. There’s creepy trick-or-treaters! Disappearing teens! A ship made out of meat! And much much more!!!. The girls find themselves in the middle of a possible apocalypse, and it’s not the one they expected. (Just yesterday I saw a tweet along the line of “Gen X thought we’d die as kids in WWIII so these current disasters seem like ones we can get through” and accurate)
I’m very curious to see where this is going… there is mention of a generational war - but are the baddies the Boomers, or the adult Xers? I’ll have to keep reading to find out, and I will.
+ 45 task
+5 review
+100 TDoS finish
Task total = 150
Season total = 1080
15.4 TDoSThe Overstory by Richard Powers
Rated 5* by Devin Murphy and Kathleen (itpdx).
I really, really liked this. It's an ambitious undertaking. The first half is 8 character-focused short stories -- and they're good stories too. Complete in and of themselves and they don't feel like stubs or laundry lists giving us someone's past. The second half weaves these characters' lives together, in ways big and small.
The intro stories are 5 stars to me. They are fascinating, well-done and the cast of characters is wonderful. The second half I definitely enjoyed, but not quite in the same way. The best parts are about the five characters who come together as eco-protesters - their threads were really thought-provoking and worked well as they came together and then apart again.
The other three threads never felt fully ingrained. The stories had poignant moments but the connections sometimes felt forced. The tone also moved into preachiness and melodrama at times - particularly the end of Patricia Westerford's story. A little disappointing because climate change and human destruction of biodiversity ARE life and death issues already, no overdramatization needed.
Overall though, my complaint is small - this is a wonderful book, well worth reading.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 380
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 - - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.5 TDoSBehind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Rated 5* by Kathleen (itpdx) and Rebekah.
Fascinating and heartbreaking -- this is reporting that reads like a novel. It's meticulously researched and Katherine Boo's empathy for the people she interviewed comes clearly through. I found it to be a fantastic reading experience. I learned a lot from this in-depth look at political corruption and slum-survival from the inside.
+30 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 35
Season total: 415
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.6 TDoSThe Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
Rated 5* by Rebekah and Valerie Brown.
Just not for me. This is of the thriller/crime/mystery genres, which I already know aren't my thing, but I read this because it's on the 1001 list. I get it -- it's the epitome of a genre. It deals with the Cold War and East Berlin (big topics), and very much puts the murky morality of espionage in sharp relief.
But it's all plot. The characters are there only to drive said plot and surprise us at the end. I believe what I've heard - that this is the best of the best when it comes to thrillers. I suppose that means I'm never going to be a lover of thrillers, if it's all downhill from here. :)
+30 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1963)
Post total: 40
Season total: 455
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
10.4 Page Count 200-249 pgsWilliam: An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton
I've decided to challenge myself to to read at least a dozen titles a year having to do with WWI, beginning next month. And so I laughed at myself when I realized this is what I was reading when I made that decision. OK, start the challenge a month early!
This was a very good beginning for such a challenge. It is a reference for the social climate in England before the war. William has become an agitator for socialism when he meets Griselda, a suffragette and frequent protester. They are almost blissfully unaware of any other issues, and laugh at the idea there could ever be a war. They also have no idea what "war" means and think it more like police skirmishes on street corners against protestors. They marry and happily go to rural Belgium for the honeymoon, cut off from the world.
Hamilton did a marvelous job of letting us feel the chaos of the early days of the war and how it affected civilians. This is a side to the war I have not before encountered. My object is to experience The Great War in as many aspects as I can, so this was a particularly valuable read for me. The characterizations of William and Griselda were well done. I might discount the writing a bit, but not much. This is a solid 4-stars.
+10 task (226 pgs)
+ 5 Review
+ 5 before 1996 (1919)
Task total = 20
Season total = 990
20.10 Riding the MetroMy Brother's Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
I don't read many graphic novels but after seeing other group members posting about it, I couldn't resist this story of a Japanese father and small daughter who are suddenly visited by the Canadian husband of the man's gay brother. The daughter accepts the visitor much more easily than her father, who has to question his own behaviour towards his brother as well as the conventions they grew up with.
set in Tokyo
Country: Japan
Continent: Asia
+35 Task
+ 5 Review
+100 RtM completion bonus
+ 50 for 10 different countries
+100 for 5 continents
Post Total: 290
Season Total: 1330
This concludes my "mega finish" for my personal goals :)
20.1 Riding the MetroRound 2
My Brother's Husband, Volume 2 by Gengoroh Tagame
This is a must-read for anyone who enjoyed the first volume. It continues the story of Mike's visit to Tokyo, and really the two volumes could have been one. The family goes on some trips, eats a lot of food (there are many meals in these books), and faces some challenges. Just a very sweet story where all the characters grow.
set in Tokyo
Country: Japan
Continent: Asia
+20 Task
+ 5 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1355
Rosemary wrote: "This concludes my "mega finish" for my personal goals :)"
Congratulations! Well done!
15.8 - TDoSIlluminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Rated 5* by:
Natalie and Denise
+45 Task
Task total: 45
Season total: 230
15.9 - TDoSPoison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Rated 5* by:
Denise and Melissa
+45 Task
Task total: 45
Season total: 275
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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)
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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)
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The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner, 384 pp
Task Points: 10
Previous Points: 295
Total Points So Far: 305