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FA 22 Completed Tasks
10.6 Bless the AnimalsAesop's Fables by Aesop
(Canon)
It's startling how many of these stories have become part of our European-based culture - in fact, beyond Europe, any culture that was influenced by the Greek and Roman empires. There are a lot of lions in the stories, so some of them may have come from Africa. I've often noticed that people from other countries have the same proverbs as we do, in slightly different words - and a lot of them turn out to come from Aesop's fables. 'Don't count your chickens before they're hatched', 'He who laughs last laughs longest', and many more.
I recognised some of the stories from a book I had as a child, but others I hadn't seen before. Enjoyable, easy to read, and some of the oldest stories that we have.
20.8: "The fox, who enjoyed a reputation as a practical joker, provided nothing for dinner but some thin soup in a shallow dish."
Not claiming for 20.10 because the Goodreads date of 500 BC is only an estimate.
+10 Task (many of the stories have talking animals)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (20.8)
+10 LiT
+25 Oldies
Post total: 60
Season total: 1460
15.9 EotPThe Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
+15 Task - 2011 Jerusalem Prize
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1475
20.1 JemisinFoxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
+20 task
+5 combo (10.4)
Post Total = 25
Season Total = 665
15.9 EotP ReduxUnless by Carol Shields
James Tait Black Memorial Prize Nominee 2002
+15 Task
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 680
20.2 - King Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Task: 20
Combo 15 (20.1, 10.2, 10.9 - Set 75% in New York)
Oldies: 10 - first published in 1952
Jumbo : 5 paperback 581 pages
Post total: 50
Season total: 240
10.4 - Series Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
Task: 10
Combo :10 ( 20.9, 10.3)
Post total: 20
Season total: 260
15.2 -EoTPrPEN/Faulkner Fiction Nominee 2022
The Trees by Percival Everett
Task: 15
Post total 15
Season total: 275
20.9 ABC's Second Wave: Acorna's Childrenby Anne McCaffrey
Task +20
Combo + 10(Series, Birthday)
Book Total: 30
Grand Total: 335
20.9 ABCsThe Hunt by Faye Kellerman
20 pts 20.9 ABCS
5 pts 10.2 Oktoberfest. USA
5 pts 10.3 9,10,11
5 pts 10.4 Series
5 pts 20.8 Soups on. « Our soup is navy bean; and our pie is strawberry.«
5 pts 20.10 Birthday
10 pts Review
This book has two separate stories that are only tangentially related. The police procedural story ties up loose ends from the last installment of the story and in based on investigative police work with little on stage violence. It fits well within the Lazarus and Decker story line even though Rina Decker is at best a peripheral character
The second story is much darker and is a relationsup story where the relationship veers into abuse in a way that is not typical of this series main characters. Sexual abuse is almost normalize and very much portrayed as « almost Ok » given the characters history and motivations. It was difficult to read and seemed very gratuitous in the context of the series arc.
Overall the book read as if it were written by two different people with the relationship story added because there wasn’t enough material for a full book in the police detective story.
Task Total: 55 pts
Season Total: 660pts
10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 … 10.6 … … … …
20.1 … 20.3 20.4 20.5 … … 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 … … … … … … … …
15.6 EotPLapse (Clementine Jones #1) by Sarah Thornton
+15 Task Ned Kelly Award Nominee for Debut Crime Fiction (2020)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 865
15.10 EotPRHow Much of These Hills Is Gold. C Pam Zhang
California Book Award - First Fiction Gold (2020)
Task Total: 15
All awards are within a 10-year period of your choice: 50 (2016-2021)
Completing 10 Awards for EoTP Redux: 100
Mega Finish: 200
Total: 365
Season Total: 1430
10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;
15.2 EotPAll Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories by Edward P. Jones
+15 Task: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Winners 2007
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 380
20.2 KingButter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
+20 Task
+10 Combo: 20.1 Jemisin /20.8 Soup's On! (jolloff stew and many more!)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 410
20.5 FaulknerHoney and Salt by Carl Sandburg
+20 Task: https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/np...
+10 Combo: 10.2 Octoberfest (Phoenix, AZ) / 20.9 ABCs (Kate S's Task)
+. 5 Oldies (1963)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 445
20.8 Soup's On! (Owlette's Task)The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
+20 Task: plain soup
+15 Combo: 10.2 Octoberfest (Phoenix, AZ) / 20.9 ABCs (Kate S's Task) / 20.10 Birthday (2022)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 480
10.9 NFLManhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Takes place in New England
One of the most upsetting and horrific books I’ve read. I went into this pretty cold, only knowing that it was a gender apocalypse novel that finally took into account the trans experience (and intersex, and hyperandrogenism, etc). I was NOT PREPARED for how hard this book hits and how deep it goes. The characters are complex and mostly unlikable, but they are vivid and real. The horror… well. It’s effective.
It starts with what I expected… some seriously gross and gnarly world-building involving the transformed testosterone-heavy monsters. But very very quickly the real monsters of the book are revealed. And it just never lets up, and the worst part is how much is based in reality.
This is a difficult, but very worthwhile book.
+10 task
+10 review
+20 combo (10.2, 20.1, 20.8, 20.10) “…passing a thermos of hot soup back and forth…”
Task total=40
Season total=490
20.9 ABCsYield: Emily & Damon by Lilia Moon
I am in the midst of two jury trials, which means it's time for mindless romance novels to help me shut down the whizzing brain and get to sleep. This book fits the bill. The plot is completely formulaic--it's a fish out of water story involving a buttoned-up wedding planner who is asked to plan a wedding in a BDSM club and falls for the wholly inappropriate but dashing club owner. There's nothing special about this book, but it served its purpose for the week of trial. The audiobook is narrated by two narrators--one male and one female--for the alternating point of view chapters. Both were fine--again, good enough for the quality of the book.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.9 - Seattle, 10.4)
+10 Review
Task total: 40
Grand total: 730
20.3 VonnegutMother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I am a big fan of Vonnegut, and truly believe his novels should be required reading (and not just Slaughterhouse Five).
This is another of his novels that shows how absurd humans are when they latch onto patriotism and ideologies (particularly in the context of war). I mean absurd in the irrational sense. The narrator is Howard J Campbell, who may be a spy and a traitor, or maybe not. The answer is complex, and not clear until the very end. He is living in post-war New York City and through no fault of his own ends up mixed with a cast of characters that are so laughable, yet depressing because they are so real. This novel was published in 1961 and it couldn’t be more relevant to contemporary situations.
This novel is very readable despite there being so much to think about. 4*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
15 combo 10.3, 10.9, 20.9
_______
50
Running total: 780
Post 545 Rebekah wrote: "+200 pts - Mega Finish
Total = 225 pts"
Congratulations! Well done!
Post 565 Kim wrote: "Mega Finish"
Congratulations! Well done!
Task 10.2 OctoberfestLoren D. Estleman was born in Michigan, USA
Alive! (Valentino #3) (2013) by Loren D. Estleman (Hardcover 284 pages)
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.4 Series, #10.9 Set in Los Angeles)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 350 + 20 = 370
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 565 Kim wrote: "Mega Finish"
Congratulations! Well done!"
Thanks, Elizabeth. I have to say that I got a kick out of the fact that the hardest task for me was the one I created! This is nice because we are off to Hawai'i before the challenge ends to see family for the holiday. Now I won't have to worry about trying to record things on my phone.
10.6 Bless the AnimalsRemarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Marcellus, a crotchety yet remarkably endearing giant Pacific octopus, has a few problems: he has been in captivity in the Sowell Bay Aquarium for most of his life and he knows that his days are numbered...he'll most likely never see the open ocean again; he has a penchant for sneaking out of his aquarium to snack on other exhibits at the aquarium (Sea cucumber? Yes, please. Snow crab? Scrumptious!) but was recently busted by the night cleaning lady; and he is remarkably bright, understanding things about the people who visit the aquarium that they don't even know, yet he has no way to convey his knowledge.
Back to the night cleaning lady, Tova. She has her own set of problems: a dead brother, a dead son, a dead husband, a shrinking group of friends, a lot of decisions to make with her impending retirement. As previously noted, she busted Marcellus in the act of trying to return to his watery home. He was struggling--he'd been out of the water for a little too long--and Tova helps him back in. Thus begins the most unlikely of friendships.
The wind up of the story was a little too tidy, but it was a lovely book overall...and I really loved Marcellus.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.2, born in the USA; 20.2; 20.10, pub. 2022
Task total: 35
Season total: 725
10.10 Group ReadA Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
I've only read a few Christopher Moore books...sometimes I get the feeling that he's a little too manic with the humor (a la The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) which is fun and all, but I can only take it in small doses.
So glad I chose this group read! It was the perfect mix of Halloween-feel and hilarity.
Charlie finds out he is a "death merchant"--he collects souls of the soon-to-be-dead and makes sure they get in the hands of people in need of souls. Charlie is a pretty basic guy and an okay character: it's the surrounding cast that makes this book so good! His sister Jane who steals his best suits and wears them better than he ever could; his gourmet goth employee Lily; his daughter Sophie and her hellhounds, Alvin and Mohammed; his fellow death merchant, Minty Fresh, a seven-foot-tall black man who wears a distinctive chartreuse suit; and Sophie's babysitters, "the Eastern Bloc"--a Chinese grandma who steals all of Sophie's dead pets to add to her soup and a Russian babushka who ends pretty much every sentence with, "Like bear" for emphasis.
I listened to this one, as read by Fisher Stephens, and it was an absolute delight--especially when he was reading a conversation between the babysitters, slipping from a Chinese accent to a Russian accent with ease and hilarity.
I enjoyed this book. Like bear.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo: 10.2, born in Ohio; 10.9, set in San Francisco; 20.9; 20.10, pub. 2006
Task total: 40
Season total: 765
15.7 EotPThe Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo
+15 Task Hugo Award for Best Novella (2021)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 880
20.3 VonnegutThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
While reading this, I kept asking myself: why is it shelved and listed as "anti-war"?! These are just horrible people--racist, misogynistic, self-involved--doing not much of anything while doing a whole lot of drinking...
I had to read a few essays explaining that each of the characters is what they are as a direct result of their experiences in WWI, that they are representative of the post-war "age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution...and vanishing illusions", that the drinking and awful behavior would have been shocking to the reader of the late '20s, highlighting the effects the war had on the characters. Okay. Sure.
I just know I really hated this book. Everything about it. I hated the characters. I detested the writing. It was ultimately one of the most boring and forgettable books I've ever read. Blech.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+35 Combo: 10.2, born in Illinois; 20.2; 20.5; 20.6, #17 on the list; 20.7; 20.8, "The girl brought in a big bowl of hot vegetable soup and the wine. We had fried trout afterward and some sort of a stew and a big bowl full of wild strawberries."; 20.9
+5 Oldies, first pub. 1926
Task total: 70
Season total: 835
20.6 ColeridgeA River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
I have never seen the film based on this book. I only knew that Brad Pitt was the star. Once I started reading the "novel", I could determine which character Pitt must have played. The book, I learned, is really based on the real life of the author, his brother (the Brad Pitt character)....and their Dad...with cameo appearances by a few others. Set in Montana, fly-fishing serves as the glue that connects the family. The Brad Pitt brother, "Paul", is the hard-drinking barroom fighting type of guy. Always in trouble. The father is a preacher. The author (narrator) is trying to find a way to help his brother while at the same time dealing with a brother-in-law who needs even more help. I don't know anything about fishing...but that didn't matter. The author depicts the fishing scenes in a spiritual way. I loved the story...and was not prepared for the ending...which I won't reveal here. Four stars.
Task=20
Combo= 5 (10.2)
Review=10
Oldie=5 (1976)
Post Total=40
Grand Total=450
---; ---;10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----;20.2; ----; ----; ----;20.6;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.10 BirthdayLate Eclipses by Seanan McGuire
+20 Task published 2011
+15 Combo 10.2 born in USA, 10.4, 10.9 set in San Francisco
Post total: 35
Season total: 880
20.9 ABCsThe Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
While archaeologist Ruth Galloway investigates the buried bones of a woman who may or may not be a Victorian foster mother and murderer, Nelson is investigating the suspicious death of a baby and hunting down a modern day baby-snatcher calling themselves The Childminder.
I was planning to skip this one because the audio has a terrible narrator that they just brought in for two books, but I went back to it when I realised from the next book that some huge developments in the lives of the characters happen in this one, including major steps in Ruth's career and Cathbad's personal life. If you're reading the series, it's unmissable for that reason, although the solution to the modern-day mystery was a little hard to believe.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
Post total: 35
Season total: 1510
20.7 CervantesThe Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
I think I’m just sad this is the last in the series. I loved being with Daniel and Fermín again. It has been more than 10 years since I read The Shadow of the Wind and I freely admit I don’t remember all of the relationships of the characters. This is such a wonderful series that the names were still all familiar to me. There was enough backstory to fill in the blanks.
Or at least I think so. One of the main characters in this was Alicia Gris. Alicia is just 8 years old at the opening of this in 1938. It is nearly the end of Spain’s civil war and Barcelona is subject to air bombing. Alicia is injured in an attack. Skip 20 years to 1959 and Alicia is working in an under cover capacity.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón writes brilliantly of the conditions under Franco. As I was reading, I thought surely Franco was a “cousin” of Hitler. (Not literally his cousin, of course, but every bit so as to political tactics.) The light shown includes some graphic violence, which is one of the hallmarks of Nazism. Enemies disappear in the most brutal way and if those enemies are promnent enough, have the headlines scream of accident or even natural death. There was no such thing as an unbiased press, let alone free speech.
This is a page turner with excellent writing and good characterizations. Any book that pricks the gambit of emotions is surely 5 stars.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.4, 20.5, 20.8 - Fillet steak for the young lady . . . and the house stew for the gentleman. Anything else?; 20.9
+10 LiT
+15 Jumbo (816 pgs)
Task total = 75
Season total = 655
20.10Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
Pub 2022
Exceptionally MEH. One of the most mediocre books I’ve read in a long, long while. And yet, all the hype surrounding it! I was on a waitlist for months…
Anyway, the title story is nothing new nor interesting. It’s a rather dull sadistic obsession story, with two characters that are entirely undifferentiated. I hope that was intentional - the sadist deliberately mirroring her victim’s style and tone… but it made for an annoying reading experience. It has a very ominous and excellent line, but it’s underdeveloped.
The second story, “The Enchantment” was ridiculous. Another simpering woman with baby-rabies? Another impossible crucifixion? No thank you.
And the last story is not a story really- it’s a draft of an idea.
+20 task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.2, 20.8, 20.9) “Olive shovels a spoonful of soup into her mouth”
Task total = 45
Season total = 535
20.8 Soup’s OnPiranesi by Susanna Clarke
Seaweed soup is a staple of title character’s diet
+20 pts - task
+ 5 pts - combo (10.8 - see help thread)
Task Total - 25 pts
15.10 EotPThe Overstory by Richard Powers
+15 Task 2019 Dayton Literary
+5 Jumbo 502 pages
Task total: 20
completion bonus: 100
all awards 2013-2023: 50
Post Total: 170
Season Total: 1050
20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska's) TaskOctober Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween by Richard Chizmar
Soup quote: "I eat a lot of Lisa's Texas chili" pg. 408
+20 task
+ 5 combo (20.8)
+ 5 jumbo
Task total=30
Season total=290
This is a carryover book from last fall, if that is acceptable.
10.8 HouseThe Witching Hour by Anne Rice
I enjoy reading a supernatural novel around Halloween, and this doorstopper-sized book kept me busy reading all month. The book tells the story of the Mayfair family of witches through the centuries starting in Scotland, moving to Haiti, and finally spending most of the book in New Orleans. Suzanne Mayfair called up a demon, Lasher, when she was burned at the stake in the 1600s. The supernatural Lasher is devious and seductive. He has an important wish that he wants Rowan Mayfair, the thirteenth witch, to fulfill. Rowan is a brilliant neurosurgeon who has used her special powers for healing, but under Lasher's influence, she wonders if she is also capable of evil.
Rowan and her lover, Michael, move into the Mayfair's decaying haunted house in New Orleans when she inherits the Mayfair legacy. Michael is a contractor who wants to bring the old mansion back to its former beauty. The house has a history of unexplained accidents, dead bodies, and sightings of the supernatural spirit.
"He didn't want to confess to Rowan that he couldn't shake an underlying apprehensiveness, an underlying certainty that they were being watched. That the house itself was something alive. Maybe it was only the lingering impression of the images in the attic . . . But the place had absorbed the personalities of all the Mayfairs, hadn't it, as old houses are supposed to do."
An organization called the Talamasca studies supernatural phenomena around the world. Aaron has been investigation the Mayfair witches for years, and has shared information about their history with Michael and Rowan. But nothing can really prepare them for their encounters with the demon Lasher.
Anne Rice's writing is colorful and sensuous. The book is a page-turner except for the middle where it slows down in the more scholarly Talamasca histories. The story could have been edited down a bit, but the author's imagination is impressive.
+10 task
+25 combo 10.2 Octoberfest (USA); 10.4 Series (trilogy); 10.9 NFL (New Orleans); 20.9 ABCs; 20.10 Birthday (1990)
+10 review
+ 5 oldie (1990)
+25 jumbo (1207 pages)
Task total: 75
Season total: 795
20.9 ABC'sThe Scold's Bridle by Minette Walters
Review:
Lovers of flawed protagonists, this one is for you! Oh boy, these characters are complex, detailed and richly developed. No one is pure good or (with one exception) pure bad. For the snobs who don't read "genre" this is a fascinating dive into how our identities and personalities are formed. The inherent contradictions we face when our beliefs are held up to the light in tragic situations as well as who the villains and heroes are in our own stories are all explored here. The book is plot driven, not fast but doesn't drag. Rather carefully spooled out through the 400 odd pages. Secrets abound but in such a truthful way that they never feel like plot devices, cheap thrills or cliched twists.
It's very British but not inaccessible. Can you tell I enjoyed it?
+20 Task
+5 Combo 20.10 Pub 1994
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
Task Total: 40 pts
Grand Total: 370 pts
20.2 KingThe Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
+20 task
+5 oldies (first published 1978)
+15 combo (10.3; 10.8; 20.9)
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 720
10.8 HouseGrief Cottage by Gail Godwin
After the sudden death of his mother, Marcus (who is supposedly 11 but acts older) is sent to live with a great-aunt he has never met in a beach shack in South Carolina. His great-aunt is a grouchy artist who shows him pictures of a derelict cottage on the other end of their island, where a family was lost in a hurricane 50 years before. Soon Marcus is visiting Grief Cottage every day, and seeing or imagining the boy who died there.
This was a perfect spooky Halloween read for someone like me who doesn't enjoy real horror. There was just enough of a supernatural element without it taking over. Marcus is so sweet, although with a violent side that bursts out under pressure. I'd have found it easier to believe if we'd been told he was 12 or 13, but I can see how growing up alone with a single mother who shared so much with him would make him seem older than his years.
20.8: "she made a fabulous thick soup from her own combination of cans"
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 USA, 20.8)
+50 Half-way finish, 10-point tasks
Post total: 80
Season total: 1590
15.5 EotP2019- Cal. Book Award (Gold)
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
Task=15
Post Total=15
Grand Total=465
---; ---;10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;15.5; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----;20.2; ----; ----; ----;20.6;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.9 ABCsBusman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey has finally won his lady, but on their honeymoon in the Tudor former farmhouse that he's bought his bride (for just £650...!), they discover the body of the rascally previous owner in the cellar. The house is soon full of police, villagers, the vicar, the sweep, and two bailiffs with claims on the furniture.
This was a reread for me and I loved almost everything about it. The servant Bunter is one of my favourite characters in fiction, and he's a star in this book. The downside - some casual antisemitism, and Wimsey has a horrible habit of showing off his ability to quote poets and classics, and here it's worse than usual because the police superintendent does the same thing, so their dialogues sometimes made me want to throw the book across the room. But I have a battered copy of the first Penguin edition with the green cover from 1962, so I resisted the temptation for the sake of its welfare.
20.8: They eat soup, paté and quails at the beginning of chapter 3.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 20.8)
+10 Oldies (1937)
Post total: 50
Season total: 1640
20.3 KingWinterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham
Review
Another talking animal book I discovered this season that I can recommend along with Coralie’s group reads pick, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out.
Imagine if Shel Silverstein and Stephen King had collaborated to write the classic The Wind in the Willows. Winterset Hollow would be the result. I don't want to say too much and be a spoiler but can you think of anything as wonderful as your favorite book as a child coming to life, bringing you back to the awe, joy and coziness of your innocent childhood years? When you didn’t know what a bill was or you weren’t under pressure about important exams or an important job? This is what happens to a group of three young adults, two of which treasured their childhood friends in the animal characters found in the pages of Winterset Hollow, a children’s classic written in verse, before they were born. Unexpectedly they are given the chance of a lifetime to visit the grandiose estate of the author. Of course the two biggest fans take the opportunity and the third friend, being the high school sweetheart of one and best friend of other, tags along. He enjoys seeing their delight although with a macho attitude of skepticism because he is not a devoted reader and being a jock, doesn’t coo over furry cute animals.
They have their adventure that lasts a bit longer than “the three hour tour” they had planned. Thats all
I will say about plot.
The audible book is read by the author. Even the non-rhyming parts often sound lyrical. This is Durham’s first novel and it shows a bit but I really look forward to any more books he may publish.
+20 pts - task
+20 pts - combo(10.2-USA, 10.3, 10.6, 20.8- oyster stew)
+10 pts - Review
Task total - 50 pts
20.9 ABCsReveal: Scorpio & Harlan by Lilia Moon
This is the second book in the slightly formulaic erotic romance series set in Seattle. Each book in this series features the budding relationship of two characters from that are overlapping from book to book. Here, we have former rocker Scorpio getting together with bad-boy Harlan. As happened in the last book, the timeline for the relationship is approximately six seconds, so typical of romance novels but not especially realistic.
These books are my cotton candy space fillers for times when I'm really busy at work and need something to help me shut down the whizzing brain to get some much needed sleep. I find thirty minutes or so of a mindless audiobook generally does the trick.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 10.9)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 770
20.4 SaramagoThe Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni
NB- When I chose this play to read....the top edition was this one with 128 pages. Then when I went to post it...the 98 page version came up...but I saw that they both had the same number of ratings. When I rated the book myself...apparently that put this edition in the lead again...so, hope that helps if there is another flip.
This is a very funny farce set in mid-18th century Venice. A young woman is reluctantly pledged by her father to marry a man she doesn't love.... but news arrives that he has been killed. In the meantime, the father consents to her marriage to the man she DOES love. Then complications arise. The original fiancee appears. The title refers to a servant, Truffaldino, who confuses everything by tricking two different people that he is working solely for them. I would love to see this performed and wonder why I have never seen it offered on stage. Reminded me a lot of Joe Orton's works.
Task=20
Combo 5 (20.8*)
*- p.62-“Enter Truffaldino with soup." The type of soup was not specified.
Review=10
LiT=10
Oldie= 20( 1745)
Post Total=65
Grand Total=540
---; ---;10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;15.5; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----;20.2; ----;20.4; ----;20.6;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.10 BirthdaySecrets of the Nile Tasha Alexander
+20 task pub 2022
+5 combo 10.4 series #16 Lady Emily Ashton
post total: 25
season total: 205
20.9 ABCsKill Creek by Scott Thomas
+20 pts - Task
+15 pts - combo (10.2-USA, 10.8-“No house is born bad” and “It was the house breathing. The house wanted its story told”, 20.2)
Task Total - 35 pts
20.1 JemisinHarlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
+20 Task
+20 Combo 10.2 born in USA, 10.9 set in New York, 20.8 pea soup and chicken noodle soup, 20.9
Post total: 40
Season total: 1090
20.1 JemisinConfessions by Kanae Minato
+20 Task - all characters are Japanese
+5 Combo 10.3 9, 10, 11
+5 Combo 20.2 Debut
+5 Combo 20.9 ABC's
+5 Combo Birthday - pub. 2009
+10 Translation
Task Total: 50 pts
Grand Total: 420 pts
20.1 JemisinThe Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
+20 pts - Task (Northern African)
+5 Pts - combo (10.10)
+10 Pts - LiT
Task Total - 35 pts
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Seven Types of Ambiguity (other topics)Where the Air Is Clear (other topics)
A Fantasy of Dr. Ox (other topics)
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (other topics)
Glass Houses (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Elliot Perlman (other topics)Carlos Fuentes (other topics)
Jules Verne (other topics)
Rachel Cohn (other topics)
Louise Penny (other topics)
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Baltasar and Blimunda by José Saramago
+20 pts - task
+20 pts - combo(10.3, 20.5-https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/7..., 20.8- eating or making soup is mentioned a few times but no specific kind, 20.9)
+10 -LiT
+5 - oldies (1982)
Task total - 55 pts
Thanks, Bucket for the postage stamp link!