Reading with Style discussion
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FA 22 Completed Tasks
20.6 ColeridgeThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
+20 Task
+10 combo 10.3, 20.10 published 1997
+5 Oldies
+10 Lost in Translation originally pub in French
Post total: 45
Half-way finish 50
mega Finish 200
Season total: 1715
10.2 OctoberfestGames of the Heart. Kristen Ashley
Maybe this book was better than I gave it credit for, being that it was not my genre at all. Plot-wise, two people who knew each other from high school, one who had a secret crush on the other, grow up, have a separate life from each other, and eventually come together because of a tragedy. If it was 50% shorter, it would have been 100% better, but too much of the book had little to do with plot and more to do with gratuitous sex.
Task Total: 10 - author born in Gary, Indiana
Review: 10
Combo: 15 (10.3, 10.4, 10.5 - Purple Heart)
Jumbo: 5 (595 pages)
Total: 50
Season Total: 1655
10.1; 10.2(x2); 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; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10(x2);
20.2 KingGenealogy 101: Never Assume Murder. Carol Grieshop
3.5 rounded to 4 stars - I loved the subject matter - a genealogist who walks you through the research process while telling a good tale. Even more, I loved the fact that it was based in nearby Rugby, TN, a Victorian utopian village about an hour north of my home. We visited last year and learned some of the history of the village, and the book does a wonderful job of bringing it to life.
This was obviously the author's debut novel, and self-published. There were a few errors that a good editor would have caught (punctuation, one run-on sentence), and a little too much food/clothing descriptions, but overall a nice book that I enjoyed reading and shared with my sister afterwards. Also, for me, there's the bonus that this is a very local (she lives in my town!) author.
Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 20 ( 20.10 - 2022, 20.8 - serves soup to company, 20.9, 10.9 - set in TN )
Total: 50
Season Total: 1705
10.1; 10.2(x2); 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; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2(x2); 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10(x2);
Post 666 Apple wrote: "20.7 CervantesInés of My Soul BY Isabel Allende
+20 task
+10 Lost in Translation
+15 combo (10.2; 10.3; 20.10)
Post Total = 45
Season Total = 825"
I'm sorry, Apple. Allende was born in Peru, so she doesn't work for 10.2.
20.8 Soup's On!Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown
When he finally heard voices and looked up and saw men in uniform approaching him, riding on tanks, he resigned himself to the inevitable, resumed eating his soup, and waited for the bullet.
A stunning work. I don't think I have ever felt compelled to write to an author to praise his work. This may be a first for me.
In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, racial tension within the country exploded. It did not matter that most of the ethnic group was American born. Areas were cordoned off, this ethnic group denied livable space. Most of them were locked away, in camps that could only be deemed, IMO, as concentration camps. Then an extraordinary occurrence happened. Young Japanese/American boys, willing to go out and prove their loyalty began to volunteer for the Armed Forces. At the beginning they were denied entry, based solely on their race. As the war raged on it became apparent these boys were needed. Some refused, due to the treatment of their families. However, the large majority felt they had a point to prove. They signed up in droves, and formed some of the best soldiers/troops the world has ever seen. This is their story, and the story of the families left behind in the concentration camps. It is a tremendous story that should be read by everyone.
Thank you Daniel James Brown for bringing the story to the world. I repeat, everyone should read this book. I just may write that letter.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.3, 20.1)
Total Task 50
Season total 1170
15.4 EotPThe Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
2021 Hugo Award
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 1235
Post 704 Rebekah wrote: "20.10 BirthdayThe Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
1977
+20 pts - Task
+30 pts - combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.4-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ami..., 10.8, 10...."
I'm sorry, Rebecca. This does not qualify for 10.4 series as it is not part of a series. (Other authors have written other works of which this is not a part.) Also 20.2 is for novels and this is nonfiction.
20.8 Soup’s OnThe Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
Lexile 830
+20 Task ”I’m making soup” said the alchemist
+15 combo 10.4, 10.6, 10.7
+5 Jumbo 633 pages
Post total: 40
Season total: 1755
Post 720 Rebekah wrote: "20.7 CervantesThe House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
Review
I had read this book several years ago, but being in a different stage of life now, i read it from a di..."
I'm sorry, Rebekah, Allende was born in Peru, not Chile. Also this isn't really an anti-war novel.
20.9 ABCBlack Orchids by Rex Stout
I might never tire of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. They are the perfect foil for each other. Lawrence Block says in the Intro to the edition I read: ... those of us who reread Rex Stout do so for the pure joy of spending a few hours in the most congenial household in American letters, and in the always engaging company of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. The relationship of these two men, Wolfe and Goodwin, genius and man of action, is endlessly fascinating. I am not generally a re-reader, but I haven't yet gotten to the end of this series, so who knows?
There are actually two mysteries in this. The first half is the title story, Black Orchids, while the second is called Cordially Invited to Meet Death. The first tells how Wolfe came into possession of black orchids. The second tells the story of a society woman who has been receiving anonymous letters. Simple on their faces, but murder lurks everywhere.
I try not to overestimate the value of murder mysteries. They are usually three-stars because I want books higher than that to have some literary value. Are superb characterizations enough to qualify for "literary value"? The more I read of this series makes me see that those professionals who write about the pleasure of this series can feel that Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are so very fully fleshed. It is true here which allows me to have this cross over the 3-/4-star line.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.2, 10.4, 10.5, 10.9 - NYC, 20.5)
+10 Oldies (1942)
Task total = 65
Season total = 910
20.5 FaulknerThe Testaments by Margaret Atwood
+20 task
+10 combo (10.2; 20.8 - It was bread and an indeterminate soup.On Monday'sthey often mixed up the leftovers and added some onions ... "The soup" she said" It's like mouldy dishwater, I'm not eating it." )
Post Total = 30
Season Total = 1065
20.5 FaulknerCollected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner
I read these stories over a period of months interspersed with other reading. Several times I thought "Faulkner doesn't tell us what to think, he just reflects life as he sees it." His characters are varied as in life - rich and poor, upstanding citizens and rapscallions.
Faulkner has a reputation for being difficult. I thought mostly his prose was straight forward. There was no stream of consciousness, and there were only a few very long sentences. Faulkner himself grouped these stories under the headings: The Country; The Village; The Wilderness; The Wasteland; The Middle Ground; Beyond. Some of the characters were familiar to me from having read the Snopes trilogy. Abner Snopes also appears in As I Lay Dying, and maybe others I have yet to read. I was particularly interested in the section The Wasteland because those touched on aspects of WWI, a favorite subject of mine.
My favorite story was "A Bear Hunt" which appears early in the collection. Upstanding citizens and good old boys alike gather on the eve of a day or more of hunting. Ratliff tells the story of Lucius Provine who maybe 20 years ago was a wild youth and with his friends would shoot up the town on a Saturday night or gallop their horses after church ladies on a Sunday morning or interfere with a Negro picnic. Now Lucius is about 40, settled down mostly and a member of the group of men going hunting. Except Lucius has had the hiccups for a day and a half. The story progresses as to how Lucius was scared out of his hiccups. It is a wonderful story, with a hilarious conclusion. My husband has a saying "paybacks are hell" and it fits this story perfectly.
I admit that I didn't love all of these stories. There were two or three when, after I finished, I wondered what Faulkner tried to say, but overall this is simply a wonderful collection. There is also his The Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner, and I stumbled across a collection of mysteries, Knight's Gambit. So much to look forward to! For those stories I simply didn't understand, this might be only 4-stars, but there were too many stories I loved. That has to make this 5-stars.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.2)
+ 5 Oldies (1950)
+20 Jumbo (900 pages)
Task total = 60
Season total = 970
20.9 ABCsThe Sugar House by Antonia White
This is the third of four semi-autobiographical novels by Antonia White. Clara is now 21 and has her first acting job with a touring company. She's in love with an actor in another company, which never seems to be performing anywhere near enough for them to meet.
A few months later she has left acting and is living with her husband - whom I won't name, although the blurb does - in a small and impractical house in Chelsea that she thinks of as the Sugar House. But married life is not all sweetness and light.
I loved the descriptions of life on tour with a minor acting company, and the character of Maidie, Clara's roommate. The marriage is an exercise in miscommunication right up to the end of this book. Still it was lighter hearted than the previous one. I'm rather dreading the next and last book, whose blurb tells me more than I wanted to know.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.4)
+ 5 Oldies (1952)
Post total: 40
Season total: 2220
20.2 KingThe Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
It’s hard to believe this is Wecker’s debut. This story flows so well. It is both epic and intimate. Unfortunately, I had to read this in snippets due to RL interruptions. This is a book that it would be fun to cozy up with and read in big chunks. I can easily see myself rereading this book. It would be like revisiting fairy/folk tales or myths you enjoyed when you were young (not thematically of course, there are adult themes in this book). If you enjoy stories with magic (ie. Arabian Nights type of fantasy), along with meaningful friendship you probably will enjoy this as much as I did. 5*
20 task
10 review
15 combo 10.2, 10.9, 20.9
______
45
Running total: 875
15.7 EotP ReduxThe World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
(This is one of the best books I've read this year--highly recommend! Don't let the "magical realism" tag dissuade you if that's not your thing...it's so artfully handled that it doesn't even register as it once you've surrendered to the gorgeous story.)
+15 Task
Task total: 15, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, 2020
Season total: 1120
20.8 Author's initials appear in alphabetical orderThe Thousand Names by Django Wexler
Fitz appeared bearing two bowls of ubiquitous everything-in-a-pot boil meal affectionately known as "army soup"
My first by Django Wexler and it won't be my last,
An Epic war fantasy with wonderful characters (read as: "strong women") and a writer who knows his business.
The story involves a troop of soldiers banished to the mediocre land of Vordanai, where their only job is protecting a puppet prince on the throne. Until the populace rebels. Enter a new colonel, with ideas no one can understand, two soldiers, one an officer the other a mere ranker. As things get shaken up, the story builds, and we meet other characters who leave a great impression on the reader. At times it is difficult to take a side and stick with it. The ending and cliff-hanger ensure I will read the 2nd book in the series, sooner rather than later.
This would have been a 5 star read for me, had the author taken a break from battle during the first section of the book. It literally (pun intended) wore me down to the point of exhaustion. However, a great beginning to what I hope will become a favorite series.
10.7 locked in at message #7 in help thread.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+20 Combo (10.2, 10.4, 10.7. 20,8)
Total task 55
Season Total 1225
20.8 Soup's OnThe Hills Have Spiesby Mercedes Lackey
"She handed him a bowl of soup." p 110
Task +20
Combo +15 10.4 series #1 in the series, 10.3, 10.2
Task +35
Grand Total: 415
20.10 Birthday The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
First published in 1994
Task: 20
Combo : 15 10.2 -Oktoberfest (author born in USA, 10.3 - author name K, 10.4 - book 1 in a series )
Oldies: 5
Post total : 50
Season total: 240
20.2 Stephen KingThis Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Review
This book started off Fitzgerald’s career and is his introduction to the public to the “Lost Generation”. Amory Blaine is the personification of the term. Not only that but from what I read about Fitzgerald and his lifestyle, he could have very well been writing about himself. The book begins when he is 15 and with his unusual mother-son relationship. While she seems overprotective when she communicates with him, it is always from a distance and he calls her by her first name. It’s almost like the relationship of two upper class women, living off their late husband’s business legacy who meet socially from time to time as the son goes off to prep school followed by Princeton University while she flits all over US and Europe. Amory’s University Years seem to be about being an accomplished drinker and serial kisser, as it seems as far the publishing would allow when he seduces one beautiful girl after another. First he gets the kiss he wants, only to drop her but later in life falls in love with the woman but now more likely the ladies will spurn him. Of course falling in love happens the moment he sees her beautiful face or after first kiss, sometimes after spending one afternoon together. No wonder they can never be permanent.
He also spends lots of time talking about his intellectual superiority, his literary skills, his philosophy and lots of inane conversations about keeping ghosts away from your ankles when going to bed, etc..with his bros on campus. They compete in their college careers including seeking honor in being elected to committees, joining clubs and getting recognition. There is one Monsignor, whom he meets while still in prep school. It develops into a simpatico relationship bridging the generation gap. The priest himself calls Amory the son he wished he would’ve had if he had not taking the vow of celibacy. He is the force of Amory’s life that can give him mature, steadying advice when he feels things get too difficult.
WW I begins during his senior year. He and his buddies ship out to France after graduation. When he returns back to US, he soon meets with a roommate from college. They name who died and what others are doing but there is no discussion of war experiences here and gets but a sentence or two anywhere else in the book. He picks up where he left off, loving women, one after another. His mother dies and he now learns she had spent all the capitol on herself and Amory. She also made bad investments. Now he was forced to face the greatest horror of all; Poverty. He despises the impoverished for their uncleanliness, their intellectual inferiority, their unstylish clothes. Due to the lack of discussion about his war experience, you’d think that battle was a summer camp when compared to having to walk from New York to Princeton, hitching rides.
He is never likable. The first lines of the book describes him as an “aristocratic egotist.” The last describes his disillusioned views of life while engaged in self reflection during an existential crisis as he enters middle age alone. He accepts his selfishness as a part of himself that should be transcended rather than oppose. It will never change but can use unselfish acts for his own good to fulfill his wants, for adoration and good will and for physical well being. He thinks sex is evil and associates it with beauty, making one self-indulgent. Not that he wants to give it up. Anyway he is not the cause of evil, beauty is but since it is transient, he can renounce it. This whole Lost Generation theme seems to reinvent itself in the literature of the 60’s and 70’s. All that navel gazing. Blaming world problems on the previous generation’s self-indulgence, but rather than trying to correct it or make the world better for having existed, it’s more about since our parents messed it all up, what will be my strategy to get all my own needs and desires met?
+20 pts - Task
+20 pts - Combo (10.2, 20.5, 20.6-#96, 20.9- no particular kind just mention of soup at dinner parties and soup spoons)
+10 pts - Oldies (1920)
+10 pts - Review
Task total - 40 pts
20.1 JemisinThis Way Out by Tufayel Ahmed
This may not be a literary masterpiece... but I enjoyed it anyway because it gave me a glimpse inside a relatively small set of people. The main character, Amar, is a gay Muslim living in London with his Bangladeshi family. He is third generation. The story we've read before - prejudice toward gay folk...even within their own families. But here....add in the pressures of religion and misunderstandings from Amar's partner's Anglo parent's. I don't know, but I suspect, that the plot probably borrows much from the author's own life. There was one glaring problem with the writing though which I thought the author and editor should have caught. After Amar calls off his wedding to Joshua, the reader goes chapters without knowing where things stand. Has one or the other moved out? Have they talked or texted since that day? So much happens that it is hard to imagine that one or the other doesn't try to connect with the other...and yet, we know nothing about this period. Somewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 stars.
Task=20
Combo=10 (20.2; 20.10- 2022)
Review=10
Post Total=40
Grand Total=630
10.1; ---;10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;15.5; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
20.1;20.2; ----;20.4; ----;20.6;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.9 ABCsThe Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indriðason
20 pts 20.9 ABCs
5 pts 10.3 9, 10, 11
5 pts 10.4 Series
10 pts Review
10 pts Lost in Translation
First book in a new series from Arnaldur Indriðason. Retired detective Konrad starts investigating when the body of a man presumed dead in a cold case is found by tourists in Iceland. Solid procedural mystery where coincidences and solid investigative technique leads to new information. Similar to many first entries in a series, there islots of character exposition setting us the relationships that will be important to the future of the series. Overall, an enjoyable mystery.
Task Total: 50 pts
Season Total: 940 pts
10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 …10.9 …
20.1 … 20.3 20.4 20.5 … … 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 … … … … … … …
20.3 VonnegutJohnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - combo (10.2, 20.9)
+10 pts - oldies (1939)
Task Total -40 pts
20.7 CervantesThe Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
MPG Spain
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2 - born in the US ; 10.8 - the hotel Castellana where David stays and Ana works is central in the book, in french it's even the title of the book ; 20.9)
+10 Lost in Translation (written in english, native language is french)
+5 Jumbo (512 pages)
Task total = 50
Points total = 510
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; 10.9 ; ...
15.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
20.1 (x2) ; 20.2 (x2) ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; ... ; ... ; 20.7 ; 20.8 (x2) ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10 (x3)
20.9 ABCs Le poids des héros by David Sala
+20 Task
No style, graphic novel
Task total = 20
Points total = 530
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; 10.9 ; ...
15.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
20.1 (x2) ; 20.2 (x2) ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; ... ; ... ; 20.7 ; 20.8 (x2) ; 20.9 (x3) ; 20.10 (x3)
20.8 SoupCaptain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Can you say Swashbuckler? I laughed when I saw it is the 2nd most shelved under that genre, only bested in that category by The Three Musketeers. And it is aptly shelved as such - there are numerous sword fights throughout.
Diego Alatriste was a soldier for Spain. He was injured a number of times and eventually left the service. His very good friend, Lope Balboa, was killed when fighting alongside Alatriste. Balboa's son, Íñigo, has been sent to be the page or assistant to Alatriste. Unfortunately, Alatriste, now dubbed Captain, has no way to make a living other than his sword. He has become a sword for hire. Íñigo is the one who tells this story (and I'll assume the subsequent installments of the series).
Of course there is lots of plot. I was surprised, however, that there was lots of wandering off to quote some poetry of the day, this being early 17th Century. The painter Velázquez is also mentioned numerous times. I wasn't really interested in either, but I suppose it adds "flavor" to the setting. For me, what made this such a fun read is the writing style. Pérez-Reverte writes broadly - almost an exaggerated style - which is perfect for his story. I thought of quoting it late, and this might not be the best example, but is certainly typical.
As for Diego Alatriste, he carried his hauteur and pride inside, and exhibited them only in his bullheaded silences. I have said already that unlike many braggarts who twirl their mustaches and talk loudly on street corners and at court, the captain was never heard to preen on the subject of his long military career.I had picked up the second in the series at one of the library book sales. I hope to get to it sooner rather than later. I cannot pretend this is literature, but it was the perfect book at this time. 4-stars.
+20 Task ("We had dined on soup, with a few crumbs of bread, a small measure of wine, and two boiled eggs."
+10 Review
+30 Combo (10.4, 10.7, 20.5, 20.7, 20.9, 20.10)
+10 LiT
+ 5 Oldies (1996)
Task total = 75
Season total = 1045
20.10 publication year is 2 consecutive digits. (e.g. 1944, 1880, 2006) Gay Lord Robert by Jean Plaidy
originally published 1955
Well, believe it or not, I use to read all Jean Plaidy's books. Probably because they were not appropriate reading for a precocious pre-teen😂😂.
I picked this one up during my recent illness as the night stand was looking rather bare and I also needed something I did not have to concentrate on. Needless to say, the years have not been kind to books I liked once.
The beginning of the book got me hopefully, but as the book went on I kept laughing and saying "You use to love this stuff." I am happy that I have grown more particular about I what I read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
+15 Combo (10.3, 10.4, 20.9)
Task total 50
Season Total 1275
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 704 Rebekah wrote: "20.10 BirthdayThe Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
1977
+20 pts - Task
+30 pts - combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.4-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ami..."
Goodreads has it shelved as fiction on its page as one of the top shelves. There is some controversy; https://www.biography.com/news/the-re... but Snopes gives evidence the book was not factual. One example was the day that was claimed to be when they found a cloven hoofprint shows no snow in the weather records.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the...
Concerning series I Posted more reply in the questions about task page
Rebekah wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 704 Rebekah wrote: "20.10 BirthdayThe Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
1977
+20 pts - Task
+30 pts - combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.4-https://en..."
Goodreads doesn't shelve books, members do. This book has a DDC classification of 133.4 This book does not qualify for 20.2 nor for 10.4.
Task 10.4 Series (Ed's Task)Read a book that is part of a series.
Lynn Cahoon was born in Idaho.
For 20.8:
Chapter 194: Our main characters share a meal of clam chowder. As each character enters the kitchen, they are told: “There’s clam chowder on the stove”
One Poison Pie (Kitchen Witch Mysteries #1) (2021) by Lynn Cahoon (Goodreads Author) (Mass Market Paperback 272 pages)
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.2 born in Idaho, #20.8 soup)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 560 + 20 = 580
15.8 EotP ReduxNovember Road by Lou Berney
+15 Task, Hammet Prize Winner 2018
Task total: 15
Season total: 1135
10.9 NFL! (Anika's Task)set in New York City
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
Well, on paper, this is a book I should have loved. The plot revolves around two literary and precocious teens in NYC during the holiday season. I DID like the book, but it seemed to cross the plausibility line a bit too often for me to love it. I just couldn't imagine myself...also a literary nerd when I was in my teens living just across the river from NYC, in Jersey City, doing any of the hijinks depicted here. When I finished, I learned that Netflix filmed a season based on this first book in the season. I plan to watch it soon. Three stars.
Task=10
Combo=5 (10.4)
Review=10
Post Total=25
Grand Total=655
10.1; ---;10.3; 10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; 10.9 ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;15.5; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
20.1;20.2; ----;20.4; ----;20.6;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.9 ABCsThe Good Old Boys by Elmer Kelton
"For a man with just one good shirt to his name, you're about as rich a man as I know. . . You've got the one treasure the rest of us can never have - freedom. Any day the notion strikes you, you can saddle old Biscuit and just ride away."
"The Good Old Boys" tells the story of Hewey Calloway, a cowboy who visits his brother, Walter, and his family. Walter, Eve, and their two sons work long hours on their small Texas farm with the threat of a bank foreclosure hanging over them. Hewey avoids commitment, and comes back with tall tales about his adventures in new places. Eve worries that Hewey will risk loneliness and injuries out on the trail by himself as he ages.
Walter's oldest son, Cotton, has great mechanical skills. He can see his future in the modern industrial world, and is especially interested in the newest invention - automobiles. His interests contrast with Hewey's who has no desire to go any faster than a horse.
The story is about making choices so you are true to yourself and use your special talents. It also celebrates the hard-working people who settled in Texas in the early 20th Century. Although it deals with important ideas, the writing is very humorous so it's a book that's hard to put down. Even though I rarely read Westerns, I found Elmer Kelton to be an exceptional writer with his sense of history and his portrayal of interesting, independent characters.
Soup: page 47 "She pulled a pot of stew and another of beans out onto the stove's flat top to warm for supper."
+20 task
+20 combo 10.2 Octoberfest; 10.3 9,10,11; 10.4 Series (Hewey Calloway #1); 20.8 Soups On!
+10 review
+ 5 oldie (pub 1982)
Task total: 55
Season total: 925
20.1 JemisinThe Arab of the Future 3: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1985-1987 by Riad Sattouf
The author and narrator is part syrian
+20 Task
No style, graphic novel
Task total = 20
Points total = 550
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; 10.9 ; ...
15.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
20.1 (x3) ; 20.2 (x2) ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; ... ; ... ; 20.7 ; 20.8 (x2) ; 20.9 (x3) ; 20.10 (x3)
15.6 EotPWedlocked: A Memoir by Jay Ponteri
2014 Oregon Book Award
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 1265
15.9 EotP ReduxThe Wife and the Widow by Christian White
+15 Task, Ned Kelly Award for Fiction, 2020
Task total: 15
Season total: 1150
10.3 9, 10, 11This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
Review: I should have read this back when it came out in 2014 because it's already quite dated. Climate change has moved fast, plus this book has no knowledge of Trump, COVID-19, Ukraine and other factors that make it certainly seem falsely hopeful at the end.
The beginning of the book was basically a survey of the current (2014) climate change landscape, and I almost decided to stop reading in favor of something published more recently. I probably should have, but the next few chapters delved into the history of climate change movements and energy industry developments and that was still relevant information. By the end I was wishing again I'd stopped, but I was so close to finishing that I went ahead and did so.
The tone feels a bit Pollyanna-ish, even though it's very much justified. Somehow, the author never manages to build clear bridges between contemporary reality and our possible futures (either bleak and barbaric, or hopeful and humanist). Perhaps it's the lack of a clear depiction of what either of those futures look like. Instead we hear about threads of each (no fish anymore, or universal basic income that makes resisting dirty energy jobs possible) but these threads are occasional and don't build on each other or hang together. It's something about the writing style (it whips around from anecdote to place to topic without clear intention, yet still manages to be a little too dry). The result is no clear path or vision here, just alarm bells. In 2014, maybe that was for the best - but reading this now, I'm ready for solutions.
+10 Task (K for Klein)
+5 Combo (10.2 – United States)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (576 pages)
Task total = 30
Season total = 645
10.1 TBRMaurice by E.M. Forster
Review: What a wonderful novel! The socio-cultural milieu feels like other novels I've read set in the decades just before World War 1, but it's very clear why this wasn't published until much later. Forster's makes a hero of someone who could never have been a hero at the time. And gives him a happy ending too!
What's most interesting to me though is that it's still a novel written during the 1910s - it's of and for that time. So even though it's a novel ahead of its time, there's no historical fiction problem: that sense of modern ideas and perspectives overlaid on the past. Instead it rings true of the time and the novelty is that Forster was bold enough to say it, to write it down, to tell a story of a gay man finding happiness and still being gay. It's a story literature and culture had mostly pretended did not and could not exist.
+10 Task (#3 on my TBR, waiting since 4/7/2009)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (1971)
Task total = 25
Season total = 670
20.3 VonnegutThe Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Review: A pretty impressive undertaking, with intense themes, a wide scope, a complicated non-linear timeline, and many characters of different types and backgrounds. It's the best anti-war book I've read, probably ever. Not preachy or melodramatic, even though so many characters die.
The descriptions are really detailed, especially in the scenes at the POW camp. This was a bit of a challenge to read (lots of festering ulcers, starvation, horrific diarrhea, amputation of gangrenous limbs, etc.) but added heft and realism to a narrative that was already overwhelming in emotional intensity.
I was really intrigued by the way that while the war and the tragedies the Australians faced take up most of the narrative, the love story between Dorrigo and Amy still suffuses everything. It's the center of Dorrigo's life, it molds his life in ways that even the horrors of war can't touch. The war breaks his body, mind, faith in humanity. But his love for Amy breaks his soul - it's the affair more than the war that leaves him a living ghost.
+20 Task (There are many references to its antiwar themes, here’s one: https://www.betterreading.com.au/book...)
+5 Combo (10.2 – Australia)
+10 Review
Task total = 35
Season total = 705
20.3 JemisinSwing Time by Zadie Smith
Review: This was a really outrageously good book, with an unnamed main character who I'm obsessed with. Partially because a little like me: very smart, a bit naive to what is popular or 'in the ether' as a kid, and frequently adopted by the more ambitious, flamboyant and interesting people around her, yearns to be seen for her uniqueness but struggles to see her own value. And partially because she learns and grows throughout the novel in such a real way. There are fits are starts. There is growth that comes with age, with mistakes, with triumphs, and with luck. At the end of the novel, she seems just on the cusp of starting to live her life.
Zadie Smith expertly places all this glorious characterization within a deep and complex understanding of class, culture, gender and race interplay, not only in 1980s and 90s England, but internationally, and into the 21st century.
+20 Task (The unnamed MC is half Black, half white)
+10 Review
Task total = 30
Season total = 735
20.9 ABCsHow to Be Both by Ali Smith
Review: I've had a sense for a while (too long, I've waited!) that I would really like Ali Smith. Here I am, then, officially saying that I love her. This book grabbed me from the start and was basically tickling my brain from start to finish. I love that many current writers (particularly women) are quietly dispensing with the need for structure and form, without feeling like they need to be smug or self-aggrandizing about it. Smith switches perspectives two-thirds of the way through without concern or fanfare, and proceeds to play with time and place so beautifully that the abandoned first two-thirds of the novel never actually feels abandoned.
I love that she took the fictional story of modern teenage girl grieving her mom's death and an obscure but real 15th century artist and ran with it - dropping the "both, and" dualities of moral quandary, gender, art, class, color, first loves and grief on both characters. It's not neatly packaged. It's messy with interconnections and mirror images and symbols everywhere. It's beautiful.
+20 Task (AS)
+10 Review
Task total = 30
Season total = 765
10.2 OctoberfestTrust Exercise by Susan Choi
Review: A beautiful experimental novel that a month ago or a month from now might have been/be a five-star read. Unfortunately for Trust Exercise, I also just read How to be both by Ali Smith and I don't think I can justify giving this the same rating as that.
Both are novels interrupted - two-thirds told and then another perspective ("Karen") abruptly breaks in and takes over from "Sarah - the author. Trust Exercise is really quite good in the first two-thirds. But the interruption that happens really serves to undermine the first two-thirds rather than add to or illuminate it. As a reader, I quickly found myself questioning things from the first part of the book, rolling them around in my mind, trying to get at the truth based on clues from Karen. This was a little bit fun and a nice jolt out of passive novel-reading.
But, Trust Exercise makes no space for deeper truth here. There's no "and," no "both." No recognition of Sarah's reasons for how she wrote, and little recognition that she called her book fiction because it is. Not that these things are denied, but more that the whole focus is finding out the truth/who is right - which we do in the end. But this transition to mystery, to finding clues and kernels, wasn't really satisfying to me.
+10 Task (United States)
+10 Review
Task total = 20
Season total = 785
20.9 ABCsA Fantasy of Dr. Ox by Jules Verne
Review: This is a short, easy read. True to Verne, it features an overconfident man with science smarts and money who is doing something in the name of, in this case, science - no matter who gets exploited or harmed in the process.
I found it a bit silly though. The other Verne books I've read (Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth) have been, while not exactly realistic in their speculation or technology, at least placing that technology within a real world context (the world of the 19th century, anyway). But in this case, the world of the novel is not real - the people of Quiquendone are not normal to start. They do everything slowly, without intensity, and are almost frozen. This makes for a major difference when the oxygen experiments of Dr. Ox give them speed and intensity.
But, I don't get the point. Because humans in reality do things with speed and intensity a lot of the time. So the book sets up a strange reality and uses "science" to get us to actual reality. Why? It's not illuminating, or interesting. It isn't really even funny or charming. So... why?
+20 Task (JV)
+5 Combo (10.3 – J for Jules)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1872)
+10 LiT (from the French)
Task total = 55
Season total = 840
20.10 BirthdayThe Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous
Review: This is the kind of thing you read for the experience more than the story -- at least, that's why I read it. The sheer amount of intellectual and physical work (of hundreds of people, over centuries, still not done) to make this window into 4000 years ago possible is draw enough for me. I'm fascinated by the puzzles of putting together pieces of ancient tablets, and translating from an ancient language, and dealing with bad copies, version control, etc., from a time before those things were even things people thought about.
The story itself is more interesting than I expected too. It lacks the superlative hero-ness of more recent (still hundreds of years old - ha!) heroic epics. Gilgamesh is not undefeatable or infallible, he doesn't slay hundreds of enemies and/or monsters. In the end, he fails in much of what he sets out to accomplish. And THAT was interesting.
+20 Task (1800 B.C.)
+10 Review
+25 Oldies (1800 B.C.)
+10 LiT (from the Akkadian dialect/Standard Babylonian)
Task total = 65
Season total = 905
15.10 EotP ReduxMatrix by Lauren Groff
+15 Task, Andrew Carnegie Medal nominee, 2022
+50 All books/authors awarded in a ten-year period (2014-2023)
+100 Finisher Bonus
+200 MegaFinish
Task total: 365
Season total: 1515
20.6 ColeridgeI Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
The doctor said to the Bishop, "So you see, my lord, your young ordinand can live no more than three years and doesn't know it. Will you tell him, and what will you do with him?"
Despite these opening lines, I hadn't expected this to be an emotional read. Well, to be fair to myself, it wasn't so until maybe the last third. By that time, Mark, "the young ordinand" had demonstrated his respect for the Natives of the small and remote Kingcome Village. It was very hard not to see their way of life through his eyes and to also become involved with the people.
There are many Native tribes along the west coast of North America. They both resemble each other and are different from one another. They have totems and dances and potlatches and are dependent on fish and other animals of this huge forest. They have myths and stories which are both different and similar. Each tribe is also different in the way peoples of the world are different, some being peaceful while others are war like. And then white man came among them and their world would never again be the same.
The tribe of Kingcome Village was peaceful and industrious. The book tells some of their stories. It tells of the reverence they have for the land and its inhabitants. It tells us by having us come to know the characters as individuals. The writing is good enough - more than adequate, in fact, and maybe so much so that it doesn't get in the way of what is being told.
I am always surprised at how much other people of Alaska read stories of this land because those stories rarely interest me. This is one, though of a British Columbia tribe, that I knew I would read eventually. 5-stars worth.
+20 task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2, 20.1, 20.8 - "When they reached the vicarage, Marta had started a fire, and set a pot of soup on the back of the stove and a loaf of homemade bread on the table, and they ate ravenously."
+ 5 Oldies (1967)
Task total = 50
Season total = 1095
20.1 JemisinRani and Sukh by Bali Rai
Rani and Sukh are two Leicester teenagers who fall in love. But their Sikh families are locked in a feud that dates back to the previous generation in India.
A modern Romeo and Juliet story of star-crossed lovers set in the British Indian population, this perhaps has a few too many stereotypes but was based on the experiences of people the author knew. It was published in 2004, and I think things have changed somewhat in the UK with a new generation, but there can still be a cultural gulf between a girl like Rani and her white best friend who tries to help but doesn't really understand Rani's position.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.9, 20.10 2004)
Post total: 40
Season total: 2260
20.10 BirthdayThe Last Child by John Hart
+20 (task) Published in 2009
+5 Combo (10.2 Oktoberfest- USA)
+5 Combo (10.3 - 9, 10, 11)
+5 Combo (10.9 NFL - set in NC)
Task Total 35
Season Total 330
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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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The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
+20 Task
Post total: 20
Season total: 1420