Reading with Style discussion
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SP 22 Completed Tasks
20.4 The ReiversCaptain Thunderbolt and His Lady: The True Story of Bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg by Carol Baxter
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - CAROL)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 500
15.7 East AsiaTaiwan
Ghost Month (Taipei Night Market #1) by Ed Lin
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 535
10.6 Space OutDo You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - TEMI)
+5 Jumbo (520 pages)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 555
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 528 Kim wrote: "10.8 Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished (Anika's Task)Oona Out of Order. Margarita Montimore
While not as good as [book:The Time Traveler's Wife|..."
Oops, thanks!
20.1 PulitzerL'Assommoir by Émile Zola
This is my first novel by Emile Zola. It is the 7th in his Les Rougon-Macquart cycle, however it is easily read as a stand alone.
I found this novel to be very readable, however I often could only read a little at a time because of the feeling of dread that overtook me. I just knew poor Gervaise was going to have a terrible time of it. Perhaps that is a result of being a contemporary reader.
I can see that this book is a fine example of Zola’s approach to writing – naturalism. His descriptive abilities are outstanding, and he definitely did not ‘whitewash’ anything. The Paris of Gervaise’ is polluted with smog, sewage, and industrial waste. The alcoholics are described in minute detail from their behaviour to their physical manifestations of alcoholism. For me the richness of detail really made the novel compelling. Zola doesn’t neglect the social commentary either, but he does it subtly. No polemics for him, instead he shows the reader how the extremely disadvantaged and working poor are hidden in plain sight walking the same streets as the wealthy. 5*
*at Gervaise's birthday feast: 'Dessert was now served. In the centre of the table was a Savoy cake in the form of a temple,…...'
20 task
10 review
10 oldie
10 combo 10.4, 20.9*
______
50
Running total: 750
From Post 492Jayme wrote: "10.4 Name
The Cat Who Ate Danish Modernby Lilian Jackson Braun
Bruan
Task +10
Grand total: 225"
scored as 20.9
+5 Oldies
From Post 538Sue wrote: "20.1 Pulitzer
The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter
+20 task pub date 1911
+5 combo 10.4 given name
post total: 25
season total: 380"
+5 Jumbo
+10 Oldies
20.3 - Our TownThe House on Blackberry Hill by Donna Alward
+20 task
+5 Combo - 10.4
Task total: 25
Grand total: 545
20.9 - Birthday'sTrap by Lilja Sigurðardóttir
+20 task - Now she allowed the chocolate cake to melt in her mouth one mouthful at a time.
+5 Combo - 10.4
Task total: 25
Grand total: 570
Task 20.5 The Killer AngelsRead any book having to do with a Civil War.
The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (2008) by Martin Dugard [973.62]
Review: This is the fourth book by Martin Dugard that I’ve read. The other three are:
Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook
The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Discovery
Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
I have given all four of the books of his that I read 4 or 5 *’s. Martin Dugard specializes in narrative non-fiction aimed at the ‘educated layman’. His writing style is direct, newspaper-style and very understandable. He includes Notes and Bibliography at the back of the book, so the reader knows where he got the information (and that he isn’t just making things up or repeating gossip). All four of Dugard’s books that I’ve read have focused on a group of men travelling from point A to point B, including both the practicalities of travel (food – transportation – sleeping arrangements) and the unexpected occurrences along the way.
Training Ground follows (future President) General Zachary Taylor’s US Army (with Quartermaster Ulysses S. Grant and Commander Jefferson Davis) as it chases after the Mexican Army. The living conditions of the soldiers is discussed, as are the supply problems that the Army had (and that Grant and Davis solved). The goal: defeat the Mexican Army so that Texas can secede from Mexico. The battle descriptions were hard to follow, despite the maps, but I suspect that Dugard was more interested in how the soldiers reacted to battle than he was in battle strategy. Overall, recommended for the general reader.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 315 + 30 = 345
15.8 South AsiaPakistan
The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam
+15 Task
+10 Non-Western
+20 Project bonus
Task total: 45
Season Total: 740
10.5 Database AnniversaryReady Player Two by Ernest Cline
Mostly set on the OASIS, a futuristic network, and features a lot of old-school computer games
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.8 - Lives in Austin, TX : https://readyplayerone.fandom.com/wik...)
Task total = 15
Season total = 385
.... ; 10.2 ; .... ; 10.4 (x2) ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; … ; .... ; .... ; 10.9 (x2)
.... ; .... ; .... ; .... ; .... ; .... ; 15.7 ; .... ; 15.9 ; 15.10
.... ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; .... ; 20.5 ; .... ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x4) ; 20.10
15.9 Southeast AsiaMiss Burma by Charmaine Craig
(Myanmar)
+15 pts - Task
+20 pts - Bonus
Task Total - 35 pts
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 459 Lagullande wrote: "20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoWe Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
+20 Task (USA->UK)
+5 Combo (10.2 TTA)
Points th..."
Please could you score this for 10.1 (no 18 on the 2003 list), with combo for 10.2. Many thanks.
20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoAaron's Rod by D.H. Lawrence
Cake: "The Marchese cut the cake, and offered pieces. The two men took and ate."
+20 Task (England->France)
+10 Combo (20.9, 20.10)
+10 Oldies (pub 1922)
Points this post: 40
Season Total: 265
10.1 10.2 .... .... .... .... .... .... 10.9 ....
.... .... 15.3 .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
20.1 .... 20.3 .... 20.5 .... 20.7 20.8 .... .....
15.4 Eastern AfricaBurundi
Small Country by Gaël Faye
+15 Task
+20 Project bonus
Task total: 35
Season Total: 775
20.9 BirthdaysExit by Belinda Bauer
Felix Pink is an Exiteer - a person who goes to sit at the bedside of a terminally ill person who has decided to end their life, just to support them as they die. He's done this several times before. But when he visits a Mr Cann with a new Exiteer who calls herself Amanda, things go dreadfully wrong. Can Felix have got mixed up in a murder?
This is a lovely book with lots of quirky characters who charmed me despite often having shady motives and dark histories. I enjoyed the slow, rural North Devon setting. There were a few hints that made me wonder if it was the second book in a series, but I can't see any mention of that on Goodreads, so I assume not.
+20 Task ("Chris ordered a ham and cheese toastie, a large slab of coffee cake, and a cappuccino")
+10 Review
Post Total = 30
Season Total = 1085
15.10 Western AsiaIsrael
The Secret Chord. Geraldine Brooks
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Running total: 360
10.1;10.7;10.8
15.3; 15.8;15.10
20.2;20.5;20.7;20.8;20.9
10.10 Group ReadsThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
10 pts 10.10 Group Reads
10 pts Review
15 pts Oldies
Franklin wrote this autobiography partly as moral instruction for his son and partly as a record of his achievements. The suggestions for a good life and appropriate virtues to cultivate (integrity, reliableness, thrift etc) are stillgood advice and are presented without seeming too preachy. He also describes his involvement in Philadelphia civic affairs and how he approached working with others to improve the city for its citizens.
Franklin’s life is fascinating and this book is unfinished and ends in about 1757. Well before the Revolution. It would have been interesting to read about Franklin’s insights on the drafting of the Declaration of Independance and the establishment of the United States.
Task total: 35 pts
Total Season: 595 pts
10.1 10.2 … 10.4 10.5 10.6 … … … 10.10
…15.2 … … … … …15.9 …
20.1 20.2 20.3 … … … … … … 20.9 20.10
10.8 UkraineThe Invincible by Stanisław Lem
I really enjoyed this classic science fiction novel. The book felt very fresh even though it was written in 1964, except for the complete lack of female characters, which is pretty typical for science fiction of the time.
I enjoyed the way that the reader is taken along on scientific investigation. The ship Invincible has been sent to a far-away planet to figure out what happened to the previous ship (and crew) that landed on the planet. They slowly uncover details of what happened and figure out the details, all in a fairly convincing way. Lem manages to write an alien life that feels truly alien both to the reader and the characters in the book.
Very entertaining.
Note: the narrator for the audiobook is only okay. He tried to do more voices for the characters than was helpful or convincing. A more straightforward reader might have better matched the style of the book.
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.5, 10.6, 20.7)
+10 Non-western
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (1964)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 685
20.6 The Color PurpleGoing Postal by Terry Pratchett
(a Discworld book)
Low lexile - no styles
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Grand total: 705
20.10 Between the warsThe Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose by Susan Wittig Albert
GR book’s main page states the time frame is 1930’s
+20 pts - Task
+25 pts - Combo(10.2, 10.4, 10.9- follows each character’s timeline, 20.3-small town if Darling, Alabama, 20.8- currently living in TX)
Task Total - 45 pts
15.1 Northern Africa The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Morocco, Libya and EgyptPrevious Points: 115
Task Points: 15
Non-Western: 10 (author b in Brazil)
Oldie: 5 (1988)
Grand Total: 145
15.5 Southern Africa The Woman in the Blue Cloak by Deon Meyer set in South Africa
Previous Points: 145
Task Points: 15
Non-Western: 10 (author b in South Africa -- his bio reads completely South African. Though undoubtedly a descendent of colonials, I do not think he would ever identify as British or Dutch)
Grand Total: 170
15.8 South AsiaThe Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey set in India.
Previous Points: 170
Task Points: 15
Grand Total: 185
20.6 The Color PurpleThe Remains of the Dayby Kazuo Ishiguro
+20 task
+5 combo 10.4 given name 5 letters
+0 personal :) on my Booker Prize list I am working on.
Post total: 25
Season total: 405
15.6 Central AsiaKazakhstan
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov
+15 Task
+10 Non Western
+20 Bonus
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 725
20.9 Birthdays (Kate S's Task)Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
p.166- ...holding in her other hand the slice of cake that she had saved for Bosco."
As I read this novel, I found myself thinking it was too cutesy... but then I also found myself appreciating how the author would raise difficult subjects...such as genocide or female genital mutilation in a manner that did dissuade one from reading further.The premise is that Angel is a wonderful cake maker in Kilgali, Rwanda. She is originally from Tanzania. But through her customers, neighbors and friends, she learns how to understand and cope with so many difficult issues. She also learns how to face her own hardships. Angel is a lovable and memorable character... and her traits justified the "cutesy" parts of the narrative. Four stars.
task =20
Review=10
combo= 5- (10.4)
NW=10
task total= 45
Grand Total=860
10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; -----; 10.7; -----; -----; -----;
-----; 15.2; 15.3; -----; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; -----; 15.9; 15.10;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; ----; 20.6; 20.7; -----; 20.9; -----;
20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoTangara by Nan Chauncy
- book not found on BPL
- as per GR profile, author born in England & emigrated to Australia
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - NAN)
+5 Oldies (pub 1960)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 585
Task 20.3 Our TownIn honor of the 1938 drama winner, read a book set at least 80% in a small town.
Novel is entirely set in a town of Hokes Folly, North Carolina, population 5,000.
For Whom the Book Tolls (Antique Bookshop Mystery #1) (2020) by Laura Gail Black
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.4 name Laura Gail Black)
Task Total: 20 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 345 + 25 = 370
20.8 Texas Independence iZombie, Vol. 1: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson
+20 Task, author lives in Austin, TX
graphic novel, no styles
Task total: 20
Season total: 785
20.8 Texas Independence iZombie, Vol. 2: uVampire by Chris Roberson
+20 Task
graphic novel, no styles
Task total: 20
Season total: 805
20.9 BirthdaysNewcomer by Keigo Higashino
After an inoffensive middle-aged translator is found strangled in her Tokyo apartment, Detective Kaga goes along with homicide police to various small shops and traditional businesses that had a connection with the victim. Asking questions that the other officers don’t bother with, he slowly pieces together what must have happened and why.
This was an engaging mystery, but what I really loved about it was reading about all the little craft shops and the people who owned and worked in them - the clock repair shop, the traditional Japanese restaurant, and the sellers of spinning tops and rice crackers and bean paste cakes.
+20 Task ("When I've completed a big job, I like to celebrate with a nice piece of cake")
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
+10 Non-western
Post Total = 45
Season Total = 1130
20.10 Between the WarsHangman's Holiday: A Collection of Short Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers
This is a collection of twelve short stories, only four of which feature Sayers’ best-known detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. Montague Egg, a travelling salesman representing a London wine merchant, solves most of the other cases (happening on enough dead bodies to make him a deeply suspicious character, you’d think, but the police don’t seem to notice).
The crime short story doesn’t allow for much character development – there just aren’t enough words for that as well as plot – so they tend to feel rather dry. Because of that, I actually preferred the Montague Egg stories, which were less complex with fewer characters, even though Egg himself can be annoying.
+20 Task (published 1933 and all stories taking place at that time)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1170
15.8 South Asia (India)The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
+15 Task (another Booker Prize winner down:))
Post total: 15
Season total: 420
10.4 NameDate Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye
Low lexile
+10 Task
Post Total = 10
Season Total = 1180
20.1 PulitzerThe Mystery of the Sintra Road by Eça de Queirós
On Sunday 24 July, 1870, a lengthy letter to the editor appeared in the Diário de Notícias. It was apparently from a doctor who had been kidnapped at pistol-point, blindfolded, bundled into a coach and taken to the site of what looked to be a serious crime.This is from the Afterword which continues that the letters appeared daily for a couple of months. It was common at that time for novels to be published serially and the reader of today knows this is a novel. The 1870 readers of the newspaper did not. They were reading about a crime that had taken place in their midst. I can only imagine how the residents of Lisbon were taking it all in.
The novel is often sensationalized and melodramatic. One of the letter writers provides a lot of backstory. I was able to rightly guess who was the victim (few names are given anywhere) and also who perpetrated the crime. It was great fun nonetheless.
The translation is wonderful. It happens to be a collaboration, but when I'm ready to read other Portuguese literature, I will look for that translated by Margaret Jull Costa. I believe she has translated the other works by Eça de Queirós, and I'm glad of it. While I enjoyed this, I'm hoping it isn't his best work.
+20 Task (pub'd 1870)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.4)
+15 Oldies
Task total = 55
Season total = 710
20.9 BirthdaysSnow by Orhan Pamuk
Review: The simplest reading of Snow is that it's a political thriller, but it's so expansive in its scope and so thought-provoking that I barely even noticed. Good thing - I'm not into political thrillers. Sometimes humorous, more often full of tension, but most often quiet, calm and cold, like the endless blanket of snow that falls throughout the novel.
The characters are all a bit of a mystery, and purposefully so. We don't see inside their shells, and everyone is hiding something. They are each snowflakes - looking the same but individually forged. We can't know them because they can't know each other. This is really well done and fits the structure of the novel (written by "Orhan" telling the 'true' story of his friend Ka, but based on journaled reminiscences with missing pieces and perspectives).
The love story is doomed, the coup is more theater than tragedy, the poetry is entirely missing, and yet there is so much here to chew on. There's the intensity of the headscarf debate and it's stand-in status for religion vs. secularism. There's the writing process. There's the complexity of love (being in love vs. wanting to be in love vs. pretending to be in love). There's the weather, forcing Kars to come to a standstill. All of these threads bend and shape the characters' decisions and outcomes.
I can see this is not for everyone, but I really enjoyed Pamuk's successful execution of such an ambitious project.
+20 Task (“By the time the meal was over they had made me feel so welcome that I helped myself to a second slice of cake and no one noticed.”)
+10 Review
+10 Non-western
+5 Combo (10.4 Name)
Post total: 45
Season total: 495
Claimed to date:
- 10.2 - 10.4(x3) - - - - 10.9 -
- - - 15.4 - - - - - 15.10
20.1 20.2 - 20.4 - 20.6 - - 20.9 -
10.4 NameThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
Review: This book is fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking, and very much full of content to wrestle with and think on further. It’s especially relevant to me since I work in health care communication – and furthers my research on doing it better. The still evolving move to focus on health literacy and cultural humility in health care is given clear justification here.
Sure, there are parts of this that are dated. Mainly, Fadiman makes a few old-fashioned language choices, but the central focus and message are still extremely relevant and valuable. The problems with health care and social services this book points out are still not solved.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub’d 1997)
+5 Combo (10.2 Easter)
Post total: 30
Season total: 525
Claimed to date:
- 10.2 - 10.4(x4) - - - - 10.9 -
- - - 15.4 - - - - - 15.10
20.1 20.2 - 20.4 - 20.6 - - 20.9 -
10.8 Ukraine has not yet perishedGood Citizens Need Not Fear: Stories by Maria Reva
I normally read short stories one or two at a time. However, these are linked and they flow into each other so well. It really reads (at least to me) as a novel. I can’t say enough good things about this collection (without spoiling it!). I started it yesterday at lunch (because I thought it would be like a normal short story collection and take time to finish) and here I am a day and a half later finished. It was difficult to put this book down. Overall, it is touching, some parts are Kafkaesque, with humor, and seems very realistic. 5*
10 task
10 review
10 combo 10.4, 20.7
_____
30
Running total: 780
20.9 BirthdaysGwendy's Final Task by Stephen King
+20 task ("He sat in her small kitchen with her. They had coffee cake and milk, like old friends")
+10 combo (10.6-mentioned in GR description, 10.9-the book alternates between two distinct timelines, (view spoiler)
Task total=30
Season total=270
Post 573 Joanna wrote: "20.6 The Color PurpleGoing Postal by Terry Pratchett
(a Discworld book)
Low lexile - no styles
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Grand total: 705"
We're carring this title without any lexile restrictions. It works for 10.4, let us know if there are others. (And feel free to add a review if you wish.)
Post 589 Rosemary wrote: "10.4 NameDate Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye
Low lexile
+10 Task
Post Total = 10
Season Total = 1180"
This isn't listed as YA at BPL. He qualifies as Nonwestern. Let us know if you see combos.
10.6The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
I loved every second of this installment. It just delighted me. A few reviews complain that this is too exposition-heavy, but I liked that. Yes, there are a lot of info dumps where characters fully detail their machinations, but not in a boring way. And I appreciate the directness after a few too many coquettish “gotta keep em guessing” novels. And it’s not like there aren’t unexpected developments that will take the series in intriguing directions. This book let my brain rest and just enjoy the ride, which sounds very backhanded, but I don’t mean that this is for lazy readers. This has effortless-feeling worldbuilding, great characters, adventure and mayhem. It’s a fun read.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.4)
+ 10 review
Task total = 25
Season total = 310
15.4 Eastern Africa-KenyaThe Constant Gardener by John le Carré
It has been a long time since I have read a Le Carre. I think this is the first set post Cold War. The milieu is the British foreign service in Nairobi. It starts with the murder of the wife of one of the attachés. She had been suspicious of a new drug being tested in Africa. The husband sets out to find out what happened and why. The back story is a great love story and the intrigue is interesting. I felt Le Carre went one or two characters further than he needed to for the story. But overall I enjoyed the ride.
I listened to an audio book. The reader was right on for most of the characters but didn’t quite hit the mark on the German accents in my opinion.
+15 task
+10 review
Task total: 25
Season total: 295
re post 435 20.8 Texas IndependenceQueen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I'd like to move that book to 20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, please. No change in points.
Thank you!
10.4 NameThe Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
+10 Task
Points this post: 10
Season Total: 275
10.1 10.2 .... 10.4 .... .... .... .... 10.9 ....
.... .... 15.3 .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
20.1 .... 20.3 .... 20.5 .... 20.7 20.8 .... .....
Post 573 Joanna wrote: "20.6 The Color PurpleGoing Postal by Terry Pratchett
(a Discworld book)
Low lexile - no styles
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Grand total: 705"
We're carring this title without any lexile restrictions. It works for 10.4, let us know if there are others. (And feel free to add a review if you wish.)
Okay, here's my review:
Zany and humorous, like all discworld books. The reader captured the tone perfectly for the audiobook. I want more of these books to be readily available as audiobooks because I particularly like these kinds of funny novels for driving long boring highways. I listened to most of this one while driving and it kept me laughing along for most of the ride.
I've made no effort to read the discworld books in any sort of reading order -- I just pick up any one that I can find as an audiobook when I want a light and funny read. This fit the bill perfectly and is available on scribd.
Combos - 10.4, 20.3, 20.4
+20 Task (20.6)
+15 Combo (10.4, 20.3, 20.4)
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 730
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Marc Cameron (other topics)
Chuck Palahniuk (other topics)
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The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
+10 task
Task total=10
Season total=240