Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
SP 22 Completed Tasks
15.10 Western AsiaThe Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili
+15 Task (Georgia)
+10 Non-Western (Georgia)
+20 RwS Country Project Bonus (Georgia)
Points this post: 45
Season Total: 350
10.1 10.2 .... 10.4 .... .... .... .... 10.9 ....
.... .... 15.3 .... .... .... .... .... .... 15.10
20.1 .... 20.3 .... 20.5 .... 20.7 20.8 20.9 .....
20.2 PrizePrairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
This is an interesting biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House books. Caroline Fraser gives the actual details of Wilder’s childhood which is the basis for the series. Wilder shifted some things and purposely left out some of the more unhappy parts. It is interesting to compare the Ingalls’ experiences with those of our own families. Fraser goes on to tell us about the adult life of Wilder including financial struggles. How she decided to write the books with encouragement and editing from her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, with whom she had a rather fraught relationship.
This is a very readable biography. I recommend it to adults who have Wilders’ books as part of their childhood as well as people interested in this period of US history.
+20 task 2018 Pulitzer for biography
+10 review
+5 jumbo
+5 combo 20.9 “She was reliving the birthday party at the railway station with its oyster crackers and frosted cake…”
Task total: 40
Season total: 335
20.1 - Pulitzer The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Published in 1899
Task: 20
Combo: 5-10.4
Oldies: 10
Total post: 35
Season total: 150
20.1- Pulitzer First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Published in 1860
Task: 20
Non-Western: 10 - Russian author
Oldies: 15
Combo: 5-10.4
Post total: 50
Season total: 200
10.5 Database AnniversaryDoomsday Book by Connie Willis (Computers are a focus as the tool used to program and set parameters for “opening the net” to send people back in time and retrieve them later.)
Review: I feel very middling about this book. The creativity is fun, there aren't gaping holes or mistakes in the structure or plot, and some characters (Kivrin, many of the people in the 14th century timeline) are enjoyable. However, in my opinion there are problems in the writing.
There is a great deal of repetition. The same idea or piece of information about medieval history or the time-travel technology of the novel is stated multiple times (to hammer it home to the reader?) This was annoying, but mostly quickly passed over.
The bigger problem to me was that Willis relies VERY heavily on the "delay" crutch to add tension (or page-turner status) to the book. By "delay" crutch, I mean that she has people pass out or communicate unclearly to make sure other characters (and the reader) can't get information they desperately want, and makes strange, hand-wringing excuses for why that information is unobtainable otherwise.
I really hate this strategy, which is super common in sci-fi/fantasy novels. I get why it's used - it makes the reader really want to know what is missing. But it also forces the author to add a lot of filler (to waste time while building to the payoff). It also makes me think the author doesn't like their story enough or think it's good enough to hold reader attention without gimmicks.
This one is definitely good enough -- dropping the delay tactics would make for a shorter and much better story. Something closer to what Octavia E. Butler achieves in her Parable books and Kindred.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub’d 1992)
+5 Jumbo (578 pages)
+5 Combo (10.9 Dual – Half in the 1990s, half in the 14th century)
Post total: 35
Season total: 560
Claimed to date:
- 10.2 - 10.4(x4) 10.5 - - - 10.9 -
- - - 15.4 - - - - - 15.10
20.1 20.2 - 20.4 - 20.6 - - 20.9 -
10.6The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
NOOOOO! It can’t be over! This book was too short. At the 30% mark I started feeling nervous, because more stuff was being set-up, and this was the last book! It only got worse... things kept happening and not in a resolution-y way. Toward the end I was reading in bed and I flung my kindle to the floor while yelling “Goddammit!”
Despite the last 25% being a bit breakneck, it was a very satisfying end to the trilogy. I just wanted it to be twice as long. And who knows, maybe there will be more. There’s plenty of story to tell, and I WANT IT.
Like the installments before it, this book was full of political machinations, intrigue, action, and Kiva Lagos cursing a lot. Super fun.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.4)
+10 review
Task total = 25
Season total = 335
20.6 The Color PurpleHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I've had this on my shelf for a bit over 5 years and been ignoring it. I had read her Purple Hibiscus and was less than enamored. What I remembered about that read is that the story was disjointed and the writing tended toward the simple. My memory might be flawed, but it kept me from this title. I wasn't very far into this one when I remarked to myself this is the story Adichie was meant to tell.
The five main characters are all well drawn. I came to empathize with each of them. There are also numerous supporting characters who help flesh out the story. One part takes place in the early 1960s soon after Nigeria gains independence from the British. We are introduced to the characters and understand their place in Nigerian society. The second part takes place in the late 1960s when the Hausa people began massacring the Igbo people. The Igbos fled the north and subsequently declared the separate state of Biafra. A 3-year civil war was the result. The war scenes themselves are brief, but there are depictions of violence.
At the end of numerous chapters is an excerpt from a fictitious book entitled The World Was Silent When We Died. Yes, we were. I should have known about this civil war. I was in my early-20s but I confess I wasn't paying much attention to anything outside my own life. Even so, I'm not sure our newspapers were giving it much attention either (we didn't yet have 24-hour news).
I wondered about the title. There is a description of the Biafra national flag. Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future.
I'm sorry I put off reading this for so long, but maybe it's just as well and that I read it when I would most appreciate it. It is superb historical fiction and taught me about an aspect of history about which I knew nothing. Sometimes it made me angry. Why do people have to hate each other, and more particularly, why do they display that hatred so violently? Although the circumstances are different, that hatred turned to violence doesn't seem to change.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.9, 20.5, 20.9 - "Will you eat cake, Olanna?" Mrs. Ezeka asked, after the steward had left. "We made it today."
+10 Nonwestern
Task total = 55
Season total = 805
15.3 Central AfricaA Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
Naipaul brings us the complexities of Africa, post colonial Africa. A young man of Indian descent takes over a shop in a town on a bend in the river. The town has suffered from the upheavals of independence. There are tribal bush Africans, Europeans, Indians and others. There is graft and corruption, well-intentioned outsiders, and meddlers of little understanding. The town rises and falls. Rebels are far then near. The “president” shifts and adjusts to unknown influences but rules dictatorially.
Naipaul writes beautifully but occasionally has a character expound rather than demonstrate a point of view.
The narrator does an excellent job.
+15 task
+10 review
Task total: 25
Season total: 360
20.6 The Color PurpleThe Light Fantastic (Discworld #2) by Terry Pratchett
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - TERRY)
+5 Oldies (pub 1986)
+50 Half-way Finish (completed all 20-point RwS tasks)
Post Total: 80
Season Total: 775
20.10 Between the WarsOut of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
Pub 1938 - space travel without a computer!
+20 pts - Task
+5. Pts - Combo (10.6)
+10 pts - Oldies
Task Total - 35 pts
20.10 Between the WarsTragedy at Ravensthorpe by J.J. Connington
Pub. 1927
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo(10.2, 20.3)
+10 pts - Oldies
Task Total- 40 pts
20.5 The Killer AngelsNo Better Place to Die: The Battle Of Stones River by Peter Cozzens
+20 pts - Task
+20 pts - Combo(10.2, 10.4, 10.9 - different troop movements, 20.3)
+ 5 pts- Oldies (1989)
Task Total - 45 pts
10.3 ShakespeareDeath on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Well, that was fun. Joanna happened to post her review just when I needed a little ‘pick me up’, so I thought listening to that audio book would be amusing. I was able to access the version read by David Suchet. He did the different characters voices quite well, although one or two of the American women were jarring at first. The funniest voice he did was for Colonel Race. Christie afficionados know that he only appeared in a few of her novels. These appearances were enough for me to form an image of him and how he would sound – so the lisp Suchet gave him was amusing.
The story is classic Christie, with a mix of wealthy and ‘regular’ people. It was pretty obvious who the first victim was going to be, but I didn’t see the rest coming. At one point I suspected everyone in collusion! Well, until they got bumped off. I liked the location and the inclusion of an archeologist, these things added ‘local flavor’ to the story.
This is the first Christie that I’ve listened to, and as I mentioned I did enjoy it. I took the book out of the library as well, because I noticed it had a plan of where the main characters rooms were on the boat. I found the plan helpful for visualizing what was happening when the action reached a pitch. 4*
10 task
10 review
10 oldie
5 combo 20.10
______
35
Running total: 895
15.10 Western AsiaUnited Arab Emirates
Layover in Dubai by Dan Fesperman
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 810
10.2 EasterStolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
10 pts 10.2 Easter
5 pts 10.5 Database
10 pts Review
Interesting discussion of why our ability to focus on the task at hand is declining. Hari places the blame on a number of dofferent technological factors including computer algorithms that actively push notifications and information designed to divert attention to new websites and cause fragmented thinking. He also places blame on changes in society, diet, and work culture which cumulativelt create an environment that acts to diminish the ability of individuals to maintain extended focus. Interestingly, Hari suggests that this is not a problem for us to solve individually and that a change in the values and underlying mechanisms in society must be addressed.
Task total: 25 pts
Total Season: 645 pts
10.1 10.2 … 10.4 10.5 10.6 … … … 10.10
…15.2 … … … 15.7 …15.9 …
20.1 20.2 20.3 … … … … … … 20.9 20.10
10.7 Three Favourite WomenAnimal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
+10 Task
+15 Combo 10.9, 20.3, 20.9
+5 Oldies published 1990
Task total = 30
Season Total: 860
20.4 ReiversHeist Society by Ally Carter
Lexile: 800
I listened to this audiobook with my ten-year-old daughter. The book tells the story of a family of high-tech art thieves who plan and execute daring Ocean's Eleven style heists. The main character, a teenager, has decided to quit the business and go to boarding school instead. Then, things happen.
We both found the beginning a little slow and the initial part at the boarding school irrelevant to the rest of the book. That said, my daughter really liked the ending of the book and they way that it changed the perspective on these characters and she was ready to immediately start listening to the second book in the series.
I wanted the lead character to be more interesting or more likeable or more fully developed. She seemed sort of flat for the central character in the book and I never felt like I understood her inner thoughts well enough. Maybe there will be more to fill out this character in the next book.
I didn't love the narrator for this book, but I thought she added just enough sarcasm and humor to the narration to elevate the listening experience above just reading aloud.
+20 Task (art thieves)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 960
15.1 Northern AfricaCOUNTRY PROJECT. Western Sahara
Hearing Your Story: Songs of History & Life for Sand Roses; A Trilingual Text for the Sahrawi People by Nabile Farès
Poetry written by an Algerian originally in Spanish and translated into Spanish by the author when originally published. This edition also includes a more recent English translation. The three languages are presented in parallel. Interestingly, the French translation of the Spanish is loose and there are clear differences in the language or words used as compared to the Spanish. The translator’s note indicates that the English version was created from the Spanish original and that can be seen in the parallel presentation
Western Sahara is contested territory with a long history of colonialism including Spanish. Today, Morocco (former French colony) claims the land and there is an active independance movement. The use of European languages as opposed to Arabic or Berber highlights the disconnect between what the Sahrawi people want and the desires of external parties.
Farès’ poetry is highly symbolic and uses desert images to describe the Sahrawi people and their struggle
15pts 15.1 Northern Africa
20 pts Country project bonus
10 pts Nonwestern (see post 23 in Africa discussion thread)
10 pts Review
5 pts Oldies
Task total: 60 pts
Total Season: 705 pts
10.1 10.2 … 10.4 10.5 10.6 … … … 10.10
15.1 15.2 … … … 15.7 …15.9 …
20.1 20.2 20.3 … … … … … … 20.9 20.10
Post 671 Mary wrote: "15.1 Northern AfricaCOUNTRY PROJECT. Western Sahara
Hearing Your Story: Songs of History & Life for Sand Roses; A Trilingual Text for the Sahrawi People by [author:Nabile Farès|76..."
This is the same review as your post 668. I think you had the wrong copy/paste.
20.4 The ReiversRaffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung
This is a fun collection of inter-connected short stories. I want to emphasize the inter-connected part because they come almost-but-not-quite to the level of a novel rather than feeling like short stories. One story leads to another. Otto Penzler's introduction to this edition says: It has been speculated that E. W. Hornung (1866–1921), Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law, created Raffles, the greatest rogue in literature, to tweak the nose of the creator of the greatest detective in literature. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to agree that A.J. Raffles is the "greatest rogue" in literature, but he likely should be grouped in a top ten!
A.J. Raffles is a thief. The title calls him an amateur, but it seemed to me he had no means of support other than his thievery. Wouldn't that make him a professional? Oh, not in his mind! In one story he is distinctly dismissive of the professional thieves also on the scene. In that story Raffles, a star cricket player, and his friend Bunny, have been invited to a week-long competition where are also gathered some very wealthy and jewel laden cricket players and enthusiasts. We know Raffle's mental wheels are turning. Will the planned heist be successful? Ok, these are not mysteries. The how rather than the who is what keeps one reading.
I liked knowing the relationship between the author of these stories and the author of the Sherlock Homes stories. I enjoyed all of the stories, but this is far from literature. For enjoyment only, this just does leap across the 3/4-star line.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.1)
+20 Oldies (1898)
Task total = 50
Season total = 855
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 671 Mary wrote: "15.1 Northern AfricaCOUNTRY PROJECT. Western Sahara
Hearing Your Story: Songs of History & Life for Sand Roses; A Trilingual Text for the Sahrawi People by [..."
You’re fast! I have edited it. Bad paste!
20.6 The Color PurpleThe Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
This structure of this book does not work. It is written as a framing story set in the current day which sets up a 13th century narrative based on the life of Rumi the Persian philosopher. The modern day peice is poorly written, and serves very little purpose. It was impossible to care much about those characters because they always seemed to be acting without considering their effects on others.
The Rumi story is somewhat better but still didn’t work for me. The forty rules referenced in the title are rather trite and by the end it is hard to care about them. Not a book I would consider one of the “most inspiring novels”. I don’t know how it made this list
20 pts 20.6 The Color Purple
5 pts 10.4 Name
5 pts 10.9 Dual
5 pts 20.7 Wao
10 Review
Task total: 45 pts
Total Season: 750 pts
10.1 10.2 … 10.4 10.5 10.6 … … … 10.10
15.1 15.2 … … … 15.7 … 15.9 …
20.1 20.2 20.3 … … 20.6 … …20.9 20.10
20.2 PrizeThe Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This is definitely a book I have had on my to-read list for a while and this task gave me the nudge. Definitely glad I did! Nguyen's writing is smooth and engaging with some humor, even in grim parts. The story follows a double agent for North Vietnam as he flees Saigon with his employer, on orders to continue relaying information from the U.S. as to the activities of the South Vietnamese forces-in-exile. The book really brought to life some of the complexity and also horror of the Vietnam War itself, the succeeding years in Vietnam, and the response of Americans to the war and to the Vietnamese people around them. A lot to think about and a lot to enjoy as a reader.
+20 task (2016 prize for fiction)
+15 combo (10.4, 20.7 - Vietnam to USA, 20.9 - "a welcome party replete with barbecue, beer, burgers, Heinz ketchup, and a sheet cake big enough to sleep on" - ch 9)
+10 review
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 405
10.9 DualThis Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel
This, like Stephanie Wrobel's other book, Darling Rose Gold, was a deeply weird and disturbing book. Kit and Natalie are sisters - Kit has joined what is basically a cult devoted to fearlessness - overcoming obstacles and pain to live better lives. The retreat/cult has folks who come and enjoy a nice retreat from the world, and then folks who go deeper, like Kit. Natalie, living a busy corporate life, gets an email that draws her to join Kit at the retreat center in an isolated area. From there, without spoiling anything, I can say that things get very, very weird.
The dual timelines in this book actually made it a little difficult at first - I had to read very carefully to understand, but despite that I think the work paid off. The characters were not necessarily very sympathetic, any of them, but they were fascinating and well-drawn. If you like very twisted storylines, Wrobel's work is well worth checking out.
+10 task (3 narrators, 2 of whose timelines are contemporary and 1 who starts 40 or so years before the other storyline)
+5 combo (20.9 - "The cake was covered with lumpy yellow frosting - my favorite color.")
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 430
20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
I adored this book. I loved the main character, Jende, and many of the supporting cast. I loved the combination of confident, well-written storytelling with thought-provoking ideas. The storyline here is that Jende, an immigrant from Cameroon living in NYC with his wife Neni and their son, gets a job as a driver for a Lehman Brothers executive, just before the fall of Lehman and the economic collapse in 2008. Through Jende's eyes, we see the world of the very, very rich and then the events of the financial collapse - as well as how they play out in the lives of the different characters. I wouldn't say it's a happy book but it's a powerful read with characters whose lives led me to feel hopeful despite not necessarily having all happy endings. Highly recommended!
+20 task (Mbue immigrated from Cameroon to the US)
+5 combo (20.9 - "Neni made chin-chin and cake, too, using the cake recipe she'd relied on in Limbe" - ch 37)
+10 review
+10 Non-Western
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 475
From Post 616Anika wrote: "10.6 Space Out
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I really loved The Martian, but Project Hail Mary eclipsed that handily. Wow...just:..."
+5 Combo 10.9
From Post 625Karen Michele wrote: "15.5 Southern Africa
South Africa
Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda
+15 Task
+10 Non Western
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 750"
+5 Oldies
From Post 650Sue wrote: "10.10 Group Read
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
+10 task
+5 combo 10.4 name 4 letters
Post total: 15
season total: 510"
+10 Combo 20.3, 20.9
10.8 UkraineThe Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
+10 task
+5 10.4 name combo
Post total:15
Season total: 535
15.8 South AsiaThe Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly
It's 1922 in India during the time of the British Raj, and Commander Joe Sandilands of the Scotland Yard is planning on returning to England. The detective is requested to stay in India for a special investigation into a possible suicide by an officer's wife in Panikhat. Joe is aided by the Indian policeman Naurung Singh. He also gets social information about the cavalry unit and the wives from Nancy, the attractive best friend of the victim.
Joe discovers that five officer's wives had died under questionable circumstances during the month of March in the last dozen years. Each one was a victim of her own worst phobia--a snake bite, drowning, a fall from heights, etc. The husbands were devastated by the deaths of their beloved wives. Joe and Naurung must determine how the murderer chooses the victims. It's the month of March and the killer might strike again!
I enjoyed "The Last Kashmiri Rose" for its historical aspect as much as for the suspenseful plot. The atmosphere of Panikhat, the station of a British cavalry unit about 50 miles from Calcutta, shows the cultural and tribal attitudes in India at that time. I liked Barbara Cleverly's 2001 debut, and will look to see where Joe Sundiland is headed next.
+15 task
+10 review
Task total: 25
Season total: 540
15.4 Eastern AfricaEritrea
The Good Italian by Stephen Burke
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 845
15.1 Northern Africa MoroccoThe Spy Wore Silk by Aline, Countess of Romanones
If this was not a true story, I would have stopped reading it fairly early. The contessa’s writing style is sophomoric. Her descriptions of people and places are uninspired and pedestrian. But her experiences of a royal tour of Morocco while being aware of an assassination plot against the king, the defection of a KGB official and the uncovering of another are very interesting. The events in the book took place in the early 70’s and point out the US’s policy of supporting dictators as long as they were anti-communist. The book was published in the 90’s, I am assuming after vetting by the CIA. It is worth the read.
+15 task
+10 review
+5 oldie
Task total: 30
Season total: 390
10.8 UkraineUkraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk
Review
My impression of Ukraine was it was one of those places that were part of USSR but became their own country when the USSR collapsed as did many other former states based on a separate ethnic identity. It was the home of one of the worse nuclear accidents in our history. That it’s flag was uncomplicated but very pretty, and a recipe my mother had for chicken was named after the capital. That they made beautiful hand painted Easter Eggs.What I learned from this book is this has got to be the most chaotic, tumultuous, unstable, confusing, fought over, erratic and schizophrenic regions in all of Europe! Parts of it has been claimed by Poland, Austria-Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, Ottoman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire, a Cossack Quasi State as well as Russia and many more!
The words “Ukraine has not perished yet” is very apt as it doesn’t appear this region has ever gone a full decade with strife. Even since turn into 21st century, there have been at least three violent clashes, excluding the current invasion, The Orange Revolution, The Euromaidan & Revolution of Dignity, and the Russian Armed Intervention that returned Crimea to Russian control. The result has been there is no or at least very little of a National Identity. Since independence one of the major issues has been should Russian or Ukranian be the national language? Although nearly all citizens can speak both languages, it’s a very heated issue. Why can’t they be bilingual as French Canada for example, I don’t understand but apparently it can’t be done. Many citizens think of their country as Russia’s little brother and wish to maintain the paternalistic relationship Russia has had with them. In fact until rather recently, the Ukrainian people were known as the Rus. Then there is a faction that want complete independence from Russia and wish to become part of NATO and then others who want no special alliances with either Russia or the West, while others cling to a Polish or Slavic identity. So at the time of independence, there was no real framework established, nothing concrete, which created the vacuum leading to corruption, squandering if resources, assassinations, mafia rule and continued disorder. Meanwhile the major world powers are fighting over who will be their ally. How can a sovereign state survive without a unifying national identity? How can it survive when there is no rule of law?
I might have it all wrong, I admit. The book isn’t so confusing as the history is. I had to keep going back over the same things to keep up with who was in power when, what conflicts were going on and often never got it straight so that I think most of it went on simultaneously. There was Stalin’s man-made famine genocide, the Holodomor, after WWI that killed 3.5 - 7 million at best guess! While we all know of the 6 million Jews killed across Europe at Hitler’s command, how many knew about this larger number killed in one country alone? From a country once known as the breadbasket of Eastern Europe, with a bountiful supply of rare minerals, with deposits of fossil fuels and large stands of old growth timber, it is now one of the poorest countries in Europe.
What I got from this book, is like the Middle East. The region has had centuries of history, involving so many different cultures, that for Americans or the EU or Russia or Communist countries to be able to go in and shoot artillery, send in ambassadors and diplomatic leaders, give a blueprint for peace and then problem will be solved is so unrealistic. Whether it be by becoming part of Russia again, or being a free democracy or whatever plan any of us comes up with, it won’t work unless the People of Ukraine want to be a cohesive nation, willing to work for the common good of the country rather than having individuals use the government to make themselves rich and the citizens having allegiances to diverse nations.
It can’t happen from the outside.
What else amazes me? The current president is a former comedian, lawyer and producer of cartoons! I’m amazed a sense of comedy has even developed amongst all these centuries of suffering! That says something about spirit!
+10 pts - Task
+15 pts - Combo(10.4, 20.5, 20.7- Ukraine to Canada)
+10 pts - Review
Task Total - 35 pts
15.3 Central AfricaAngola
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa
+15 Task
+10 Non-Western
Task total: 25
Completion Bonus: 100
Season Total: 985
Task 10.2 EasterRead a book with a title consisting of at least three words, in which the initials can each be found in EASTER.
eASTer
For #20.9 combo:
Read a book in which a character or group of characters eat cake.
p. 195: “Her mother has also made her own birthday cake, a heavy whole-grain loaf sweetened with honey and loaded with currants. They sing ‘Happy Birthday’, and her mother blows out the single beeswax candle.” Then they eat the cake!
The Sidewalk Artist (2006) by Gina Buonaguro (Goodreads Author) and Janice Kirk (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 224 pages)
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.4 “Gina” and “Kirk”, #20.9 “eat cake”)
Task Total: 20 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 400 + 20 = 420
20.2 PrizeProfiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
Biography- 1957
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo(10.4, 20.8 - died in Texas)
+ 5 pts - Oldies
Task Total - 35 pts
10.5 Database AnniversaryThe Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium #4) by David Lagercrantz
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.4 - DAVID)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 860
15.1 Northern AfricaLybia
The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
+100 Completion (15 tasks)
Post Total: 135
Season Total: 995
20.10 - Between the WarsA Witness to Murder by Verity Bright
+20 task - 1920
+ 5 Combo - 20.9 - ... visit the fabulous Winsmome Tea Rooms with its award-winning fruitcake.
Task total: 25
Grand total: 680
20.10 - Between the WarsA Willful Grievance: A Lillie Mead Historical Mystery] by Lisa Zumpano
+20 task - 1920
+15 Combo (10.4, 20.3, 20.9 - ...Mr. Green has such good cakes, after supper cakes I mean...)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 715
10.3 ShakespeareThe Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
+10 Task
+. 5 Oldies (1971)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 800
10.6 Space OutObsidio by Amie Kaufman
+10 Task: 850 Lexile
+10 Combo: 10.4 Name (Amie and Jay) / 10.5 Database Anniversary (Computers and robots)
+. 5 Jumbo (618p)
Task Total: 25
10 Point Finish: 50
Post Total: 75
Season Total: 875
15.8 South AsiaPakistan
Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie
+15 Task
+10 Non - Western
+20 Country Bonus
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 920
20.2 PrizeThe Known World by Edward P. Jones
+20 Task
+. 5 Combo: 20.9 Birthdays (p272 ...Caldonia had Loretta bring him cake with his coffee.)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 945
20.3 Our TownHere the Whole Time by Vitor Martins
+20 Task: "a small town where all you have to do is poke your head out a window to see half the school right there on the sidewalk."
...and a great Group Read!
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 965
20.9 Birthdays (Kate S's Task)Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
+20 task ("Then we ate some cake and shared it with two forks" pg. 283)
Task total=20
Season total=335
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (other topics)Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (other topics)
Your Madness, Not Mine: Stories of Cameroon (Volume 70) (other topics)
Cold Snap (other topics)
Invisible Monsters (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeff Guinn (other topics)Jeff Guinn (other topics)
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (other topics)
Marc Cameron (other topics)
Chuck Palahniuk (other topics)
More...
Kazakhstan
A Shadow Intelligence (Elliot Kane #1) by Oliver Harris
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 695