Reading with Style discussion
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10.7 Geocaching MPG AdventureRiver of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile 3 stars
A small disappoint from one of my favorite non-fiction writers. I have read all of Millard's books and been engrossed with each one. This one not so much.
The writing and research, as always, were perfection. The problem was mine. I was expecting something more along the lines of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, which gave me all the adventure and history and excitement that I expect from the author. This book was more of a look at the lives of the 2 men at the heart of the story, and unfortunately I struggled to get through the relationship of these two egotistical men and I disliked them both.
Others may find the story just fine. If you appreciate this author's diligent research and wonderful writing and go into it with no expectations, it may suite you.
+Task 10
+20 Combo (10.2, 20.8, 20.9, 20.10)
+10 Review
Task total 40
Season Total 200
20.10 - BirthdayBroken Screams by Sally Rigby
+20 task - 2022
+5 Combo - 10.4
Task total: 25
Grand total: 85
10.1 TBRThis House Is Haunted by John Boyne
It's been rainy and dark all day and I wanted something atmospheric and, boy!, did this fit the bill...
Eliza has recently and unexpectedly lost her father and her home--her only option is to retain a position as a governess (room, board, salary: check, check, check). Luckily, she sees an advertisement for just such a position at Gaudlin Hall. She is immediately enamored of her charges, Isabella and Eustace. What she's not so enamored of is the house itself. On her first night, the malevolent forces in the house begin their campaign to send her packing--or end her life, which has happened to multiple previous governesses.
Written in the style and spirit of Dickens, this was a great read for a dark and stormy night--or dark and stormy day as the case may be.
+10 Task, put on TBR list 19 May 2019
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.2 (born in Ireland), 10.3, 10.8
Task total: 35
Season total: 270
Completion postEoTP 15.1
The Midnight Libraryby Matt Haig
Goodreads Choice Award Fiction 2020
Task +15
Grand Total: 65
10.9 NFL! (Anika's Task)The Godmothers. Camille Aubray
This historical fiction novel focuses on a 23 year time period (from 1934 - 1957), winding things up in 2019. It is the story of four woman who marry or are born into a minor crime family in NYC. The women bond over the secrets they keep, their children, and the tight family structure. I really enjoyed the story telling, the way the characters were fleshed out, and how the women were the major players. Unlike the The Godfather, there was a lot of violence in the book.
+ 10 task - took place in NYC
+ 10 review
+ 5 (combo 20.8 pasta fagioli soup)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 200
10.2; 10.3; 10.9
15.1; 15.2;
20.6; 20.10;
10.6 Bless the Animals Sa majesté des escarmouches by Loïc Clément and Anne Montel
Characters are anthropomorphic animals (bear, bat, tiger, mice,...)
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.10 - published 2022)
Task total = 15
Points total = 75
... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
... ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.10
10.6 Blessings of AnimalsThree Bags Full by Leonie Swann
On the book flap, it says "Agatha Christie meets Wind in the Willows". I enjoyed this, but either I haven't read enough Christie or the person who wrote that hasn't. There isn't a detective although the sheep, as a flock, try to figure out who murdered their beloved shepherd. So nothing like Christie. It has been many years since I read The Wind in the Willows. I read it aloud to my children when they were small (and they are now in their 50s!) and is one of their favorite books. I loved making up voices for the various animals. This book could easily lend itself to such narration, though probably not to very small children. This is about a murder, after all.
The sheep are wonderful. They don't really understand humans and haven't spent a lot of time studying them. They knew George who treated them kindly and who even read stories to them every day. They didn't like the butcher. Other than that, humans and their habits were pretty much an unknown. The sheep were determined to solve this, though. They began watching human behavior and listening at windows. They talked among themselves.
This was delightful even though it is not my usual fare. The writing style is interesting and the characterizations of some of the sheep almost fully-fleshed. (Can you say "fully-fleshed" about sheep characterizations?) This is not 5-stars, even though it kept me turning pages, but a nice, well-rounded 4-stars? Yes!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2 - Germany, 20.2, 20.9, 20.10 - 2005)
+10 LiT
Task total = 50
Season total = 145
From Post 52Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "20.2 King Debut Novel
The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
A character study wrapped in a mystery. An aging fencing master copes with his own decline as well as t..."
+5 Combo 20.5
From Post 53Jayme wrote: "10.4 Series
Twelve Sharpby Janet Evanovich
series #12
Task +10
Combo 10.2-author born in USA
Grand Total: 35"
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 73Rosemary wrote: "20.2 King
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez
Havana in the 1990s is in a major slump, with little food to be found but no shortage of moonshine and, for our..."
+10 Lost in Translation
20.8 Soup’s OnThe Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
+20 task The smell of some kind of stew came clearly to Totho
+15 Combo 10.4, 10.7, 20.9
+5 Jumbo 646 pages
Post total: 40
Season total: 180
10.8Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
From the opening pages this book had a grip on me. I really like Gailey’s writing style, and of course it doesn’t hurt that this book falls into my favorite horror sub-genre of more-than-haunted houses.
Vera is returning home after a long absence because her estranged, dying mother needs her. Her father, long since dead, was a serial killer, and Vera somehow feels responsible for his fate. Needless to say, returning home is fraught.
And if that wasn’t enough, something sinister is going on. It’s not clear if the strangeness is caused by Daphne (the vile mother), the creepy artist living in the shed, an actual haunting, or Vera losing her mind. Being home is causing her to remember things that she wanted forgotten forever.
This has some excellent horror scenes - there were moments when I was biting my nails from the tension. It’s a long, slow, suspenseful build to a satisfying climax.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.2, 20.10)
Task total = 30
Season total = 80
Completion Post10.4 Series
Size 12 Is Not Fatby Meg Cabot
Heather Wells series
Task +10
Combo + 5 (Octoberfest USA)
Book Total: 15
Grand Total: 80
20.8 Soup's On!Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu
'…the age old comfort of steaming rice and rich, clear soup' (about 12% in)
Well, I always meant to get back to this series. So here I am 5 years after reading the first instalment revisiting Aunty Lee. Aunty Lee is a widow who owns and operates a catering business and a café. A lot of the events in the story involved food, and I suspect that if I was familiar with Singaporean food I would have been hungry the whole time I read this novel! Reading about the meals/snacks and the culture in Singapore was very interesting, and made me intrigued with Singapore. The mystery is complex involving wealthy entitled people who are not nice at all. Aunty Lee has a deep understanding of human nature, and enough of a gimlet eye to see through the smoke and mirrors though! 4*
20 task
5 combo 10.4
10 review
_______
35
Running total: 150
20.2 KingAll That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
Review
"Ky didn't allow her mother to have feelings, because to grant her these would mean acknowledging that she was a person who had desires and dreams beyond what Ky saw. It was easier to imagine her as a caricature, as an immigrant Cabramatta parent, whose only desire was for her children to become doctors and lawyers (or ideally both), whose only means of expressing love to them was through cooking their meals, washing their clothes, and criticizing them into being better people."
My background isn't Vietnamese nor refugee however I'm married into one and hence, this book piqued my interest. In the 90s, I was in my teens and we didn't live anywhere near Cabramatta though we heard stories, of course. Despite Cabramatta not being my own stomping ground and my childhood, as sheltered as it was, there were many moments in the book that were just so identifiable in many different ways.
Ky is the main protagonist whom readers follow as she tried to find out how and why her brother was murdered. However, at least half of the novel is told from and of other people involved in this mystery. So much so that, near the end of the book, I feel that the structure of this novel is like a jigsaw puzzle where each piece reflects a different facet of this community and together, they form a full picture, albeit with cracks.
All That's Left Unsaid is a novel of loss, of grief, of burdens we were given and picked up throughout our lives. Author's prose is concise and phrases are polished to a shine; it is sharp as papercut. Please do yourself a kindness and read this book.
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.2 - born AU; 20.1; 20.8*; 20.10 - pub 2022)
+10 Review
*"I remembered the first thing that came out was a soup, my favorite, canh chua, and it had a whole fish head in it, and this was before my lips went bad, so I was able to slurp like four bowls before my parents told me to slow down or I'd get a stomachache." -p66
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 310
15.5 EotP ReduxAmsterdam by Ian McEwan
International Dublin Literary Award Nominee 2000
+15 task
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 100
10.1 TBRStraight Man by Richard Russo
This is an academic novel in the genre of Small World. Russo is excellent at getting into the head of a middle aged man in the midst of drifting about trying to figure out what he's doing and what it's all for. Russo also has the pulse of academia here--petty arguments that manage to last years beyond the original dispute, declining budgets, directionless research.
The humor here was both subtle and slapstick, laugh out loud funny and sly commentary hitting right to the heart. I loved it. I've lived it. As the spouse of an academic, and a lawyer who represents a lot of faculty members, I've seen so much of what's lambasted in this novel.
I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrator was pitch-perfect for this character. I highly recommend the book in audio format if you are an audiobook reader.
+10 Task (on TBR since 2007!)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1997)
+10 Combo (10.2 - US, 20.10 - 1997)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 235
15.1 EoTP ReduxSemiautomatic by Evie Shockley
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry - 2018
Task total: 15
Grand total: 250
20.6 ColeridgeThe Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Julia's father--a successful New York lawyer--has disappeared without a trace. Her mother finds a letter he'd written to a woman from the Burmese village he grew up in. Since that's the only clue she can find, Julia decides to travel there in search of any trace of her father.
What unfolds is one of the most beautiful love stories I've read in recent memory. It reminded me a little of Like Water for Chocolate, minus the magical realism. And it wasn't just about romantic love: some of the most powerful moments were about a son's love of his mother and of a guardian's love for her charge.
I enjoyed the writing, which is rare in a translated volume (at least in most that I've encountered)--I'm glad I mostly listened to it, though, because I got distracted by the unfamiliar names/pronunciation of things while reading in the book. I don't know how in the world this story turned into a trilogy--it seemed very self-contained and complete--so I'm curious to pick up the next installment.
+20 Task, #229 on the list
+10 LiT, translated from German
+10 Review
+40 Combo: 10.2 (born in Germany), 10.3, 10.4, 20.1, 20.2 (he wrote non-fiction prior, but this is his first novel), 20.8 ("Tin Win could handle cutlery and his blindness did not prevent him from eating decorously. Not even the soup gave him any trouble."), 20.9, 20.10 (pub. 2002)
Task total: 80
Season total: 350
15.3The Four Profound Weaves. R.B. Lemberg
+ 15 task - Otherwise Award (2020)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 215
10.2; 10.3; 10.9
15.1; 15.2; 15.3
20.6; 20.10;
20.4 set at least 51% in the 18th Century The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet
A riveting Revolutionary Era drama of the first published rape trial in American history and its long, shattering aftermath, revealing how much has changed over two centuries—and how much has not
The year is 1793, the place is New York City and Lanah Sawyer, a seventeen year old girl, is seduced and raped. She does an unheard of act: She presses charges against her offender. This was, most likely, the first publicized rape trial in the United States.
Have no worries if you are a reader who cannot read about abuse towards women. The reader gets only a glimpse of the act it self. The author focuses more on class privilege, misogyny and the legal battle that took place.
Although there was a lot of legalese that went over my head, most of the story was engaging and written for the non-legal-minded reader . The author gives credence to the facts: nearly 200 years have passed since this crime, and somethings have not changed.
A well researched historical event that more people should be reading
+20 Task0.3
+15 Combos (10.3, 10.9, 20.10)
+10 Reveiw
Total Task 45
Season Total 205
10.4 Series (Ed's Task)On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming
Once again, I am surprised at how much I like the James Bond series. For me the Bond films have been entertaining mostly because of their slick fast-paced productions...but the villains are always cartoonish and Bond a superhero. The novels are much more nuanced. Bond is less superhero and more human... extraordinary human...but still human. Bond is vulnerable... he actually gets hurt repeatedly. The drawback is that the writing reflects the times in which it was written with all the women being voluptuous and submissive. Nevertheless, a good exciting read as Bond once again saves Britain from potential disasters.
Task=10
Review=10
Combo= 15 (10.3; 10.7; 20.5)
Oldie= 5 (1963)
Post Total=40
Grand Total=120
---; ---; ---;10.4; 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;----; ----; ----; 20.10
Task 15.1 EotP ReduxJerusalem Prize (Israel, international laureates) 2019
Joyce Carol Oates (United States)
The Falls (2004) by Joyce Carol Oates
+15 Task
+05 500 pages or more (the MPE version is 512 pages)
Task Total: 15 + 05 = 20
Grand Total: 45 + 20 = 65
15.2 EotPR1933-1942 National Book Award
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
+15-task
+ 5-oldie (1940)
Task Total - 20
20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska's) TaskThe Carnival is Over (Mick Goodenough #2) by Greg Woodland
Pub. 2022
Review
A follow up on The Night Whistler, The Carnival is Over is set approximately 5 years after the events in The Night Whistler. Hal and Allie are on the verge of adulthood and Mick Goodenough promoted to Sergeant and quite settled in Moorabool. And yet, he still likes to rock the boat especially when he's got his teeth into a puzzling mystery.
The Carnival is Over is a thoroughly enjoyable complex mystery that kept you guessing all the time with just enough suspense to get your heart racing. The switch of views from character to character were done smoothly and flawlessly that I had no problem following. If you like The Night Whistler, then you'd love The Carnival is Over.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - born AU; 20.9 - author's initials: GW)
+10 Review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 350
10.8 House (Ann's Task)The Last Graduate (The Scholomance #2) by Naomi Novik
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - born AU; 10.4)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 370
20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska's) TaskWrongfully Infused (Oxford Tearoom Mysteries #11) by H.Y. Hanna
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 395
15.2 EotPSomewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
+15 Task 2008 Costa Book Awards
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 250
15.6 EotP ReduxFight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Oregon Book Award Winner for Fiction 1997
+15 task
+5 before 1997 (first published 1996)
Post Total = 20
Season Total = 120
Task 15.2 EotP ReduxLadies of Horror Fiction Award (winners and nominees)
2021 Nominee for Best Novel
Cackle (2021) by Rachel Harrison
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 65 + 15 = 80
15.3 Eyes on the Prize ReduxCome to Grief by Dick Francis
15 task 1996 Edgar Award
5 oldie
_____
20
Running total: 170
20.2 KingThe Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
+20 task
+10 Combo 20.1, 20.8 (eggplant stew)
+10 Lost in Translation
Post total: 40
Season total: 220
20.10 BirthdayAngels of the Pacific: A Novel of World War II by Elise Hooper
In early October, members of my face-to-face book club will be reporting on books about WWII set in other than Europe. This is one of the books I chose for that project. I had read the nonfiction Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission. This is a novel, but I thought it would expand my knowledge of the war in the Philippines. I'm glad I had the background from the nonfiction, but I don't think this novel would be any less for not having had it. There is a nonfiction on the nurses in the Philippines: Pure Grit: How WWII Nurses in the Pacific Survived Combat and Prison Camp, which Elise Hooper lists in her section "Other Reading".
This novel opens in December 1941 and is told from two points of view. The first is Tess, a young army nurse. Her parents died when she was young and she was raised by an older sister, now married. Tess was ready to spread her wings. Her story is told in the first person. The other young woman is Flor, a Filipina of a relatively wealthy social class. Flor has an older sister who is a nurse. Flor's story is told in the third person. Eventually, during the Japanese occupation, the lives of Tess and Flor intersect.
War is not easy anywhere it touches, and it certainly wasn't easy for these women. Tess had a job to do. Flor had a country and freedom to fight for. These were fictional characters, but I have no doubt that the things on the page happened - in one way or another.
These two characters are fully-fleshed, in so far as I was able to feel what they were feeling. There were a few poignant moments that brought tears. Both were strongly motivated women. I admit that few if any of us have zero weaknesses, and Tess and Flor certainly had fewer than most. Still, I was ready to accept them as written and only thought about this after I'd read the last page. The writing style is not as mature as I might have wished, but Hooper gets the job done.
I'm glad I read this, and it probably comes in in the lower third of my 4-star group. I'm not sure I'll be reading another by this author, but that is only because I don't see myself interested in her other subjects.
+20 Task (2022)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 - US, 20.9)
Task total = 40
Season total = 185
20.8 SoupThe Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
Meh.
This was not a bad book, but it was a painfully slow one. I’ve been trying to read this for ages and it is so put-downable that I never made it far. But I recently had the time and inclination to press on. By the time I got to the 50% point, I had concerns, but it wasn’t DNF-worthy. I wanted to know what happened. By the 70% point, I lost patience. The plot had really started to get going, only to halt again and again. By 80% I did a speed run to get through it.
I love a slow build, but it has to build. This was drawn out that I never felt any tension or suspense. I was bored.
+ 20 task “Eddie… ate his last meal, a simple bowl of wholesome chicken noodle soup”
+ 10 Combo (10.2, 20.9)
+10 review
+5 Jumbo
Task total = 40
Season total = 125
20.9 ABC The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day by Elie Wiesel
Task: 20
Combo: 10 (20.3, 10.2 - born in Romania)
Lost in Translation: 10
Oldies: 5 ( first published as trilogy in 1961)
Post total: 45
Season total: 70
10.3 : 9,10,11 Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Task: 10
Combo: 10 (10.4, 10.2)
Jumbo : 5 ( MPE 563)
Post total: 25
Season: 95
15.3 EotPR1943 - 1952 Llewelyn Rhys
The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard
+15 - Task 1951
+ 5 - Oldies
Total - 20pts
15.4 EotPRThe Beekeeper of Aleppo. Christy Lefteri
This was a powerful book, one that I would think about for days, and possibly reread in the future. Set against the backdrop of the civil war that broke out in Syria in 2011, it is the heartbreaking story of Nuri, a beekeeper, and his artist wife, Afra, who must flee their country and find a way to make a new life for themselves elsewhere, while dealing with severe PTSD and blindness after losing the small son, Sami.
I listened to the audio version of this, which had the advantage of hearing the beautiful language in which the story was told, but the disadvantage of not seeing the skips in the timeline, which was more obvious (I'm told) in a print edition. This raised my awareness of a situation of which I was only vaguely aware of, and although it was hard to read of the pain the characters faced, I am glad to have read it.
+ 15 task - Dayton Literary Peace Prize (winners and nominees) (2020)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 230
10.2; 10.3; 10.9
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4
20.6; 20.10;
10.5 Autumn coloursHeart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia
+10 task using ‘heart’ from ‘purple heart’
+15 Combo 20.8 (bread soup & borscht), 20.9, 20.10 (pub 2011)
Post total: 25
Season total: 245
20.1 JemisinHarlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked."
Ray was the son of a small-time crook, but he wanted to move up in the world. He attended college and bought a small furniture store in Harlem. Ray inherited a truck from his father that had a surprise gift in the spare tire well that funded his store. Money was scarce so Ray occasionally fenced some jewelry brought in by his cousin, Freddie, or sold a used TV that "fell off of a truck."
Ray, his wife, and their children are living in a small apartment near the subway and saving for something better. Life is going well in 1959 when Freddie gets involved in a dangerous plan to rob the safe in the Hotel Theresa, and volunteers Ray to fence the jewels. Freddie is like a brother to Ray so he tries to protect his cousin, and score enough cash to finance a new apartment. Ray also has a dream to move into Harlem's elite Black community.
The book follows Ray, his cousin Freddie, and his older friend Pepper through a series of heists. Harlem is populated with crooked cops demanding protection money, bookies, gangsters, and corrupt city workers. There are also civil rights workers and lawyers trying to make it a better place. Race, injustice, inequality, revenge, and gentrification are important themes in the book. Beautiful descriptions of 1960s New York City architecture, and bits of sarcastic humor also fill the pages. Ray is a man who is living a double life - the upright owner of a furniture store with a shady fencing business on the side.
It was fun to see a different side of Colson Whitehead's talent. I had already read "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys," but this is a totally different type of book. He's a great writer so this heist story is both entertaining and thoughtful.
20.8 Soup's On!: page 44 "They were eating pea soup."
+20 task
+20 combo 10.2 Octoberfest (USA); 10.9 NFL! (New York City); 20.8 Soup's On!; 20.9 ABCs
+10 review
Task total: 50
Season total: 220
15.2 EotPA Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
+15 Task International Dublin Literary Award Nominee (2018)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 410
20.10 Birthday Naples et la côte amalfitaine - 7ed by Lonely Planet
Published 2022
+20 Task
No style points, travel guide
Task total = 20
Points total = 95
... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
... ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.10 (x2)
20.5 FaulknerLife On Earth by David Attenborough
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.4)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 435
10.9 NFL! (Anika's Task)The Queen of Bedlam (Matthew Corbett #2) by Robert McCammon
Approx 95% in NYC
"'Twas said better to light a candle than to curse the dark, but in the town of New York in the summer of 1702 one might do both, for the candles were small and the dark was large." -first sentence
+10 Task
+25 Combo (10.2 - born USA; 10.4; 20.4 - a few weeks in 1702; 20.8*; 20.10 - pub 2007)
+5 Jumbo (645p)
*"Matthew took a spoonful of the corn soup and then another bite of the ham." ~p264
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 475
10.9 NFLThe Cousins by Karen M. McManus
low lexile
+10 Task (Set in New England--mostly Massachusetts)
I listened to the audiobook of this with my ten-year-old on the recommendation of my thirteen-year-old. I found it entertaining, but a bit hard to suspend disbelief through the end of the story. My kids loved it, so it seems like a good bet for the middle-school age range.
Task total: 10
Grand total: 260
Post 126 Tien wrote: "20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska's) TaskThe Carnival is Over (Mick Goodenough #2) by Greg Woodland
Pub. 2022
Review
A follow up on [book:The Night Whistler|5340..."
Although there are only 2 installments to date, this looks like a series that will continue. Combo 10.4.
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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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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Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living. David Fideler
This book brought me back to my freshman year in college, when one of the courses I took dealt with ancient philosophers, and included Seneca and stoicism. As I look across the decades since then, I realize that it was a philosophy that shaped my life, and that I've always tried to live by the guidelines of gratitude, acceptance of change, being able how to control not events, but how I react to them, and reflecting on how I can be a better person. It was interesting to be reminded of these things.
+ 10 task - born in the United States (per: https://platosacademy.org/why-ancient...)
+ 10 review
+ 5 (combo 20.9)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 175
10.2; 10.3;
15.1; 15.2;
20.6; 20.10;