Reading with Style discussion
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FA 22 Completed Tasks
20.2 KingMe, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine
First published in the UK as Finding Violet Park (2007) and that's how it's listed on Fantastic Fiction https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/je...
Me, the Missing, and the Dead (2008 on Fantastic Fiction) is not a different book, just the American edition.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.3, 20.9, 20.10)
Post total: 35
Season total: 825
20.9 ABCsApples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
After raising four children in their Australian tennis-focused family, Joy and Stan Delaney were now retired. Stan had done most of the coaching while Joy ran the business and took care of the family. Now that her life has slowed down, sixty-nine-year-old Joy wished she had handled some things differently.
"Regret" can be my memoir's theme, she thought, as she tried to shove the cheese grater into the dishwasher next to the frying pan. "A Regretful Life" by Joy Delaney.
When the four Delaney adult children receive a strange text message from their mother that she's gone off-grid, and she just disappears, secrets about the Delaney marriage and sibling rivalry come to the surface. Stan is suspected of involvement in his wife's disappearance.
Adding to the confusion, a young woman named Savannah had shown up at the Delaney home about six months earlier saying that she was a victim of domestic violence. The couple let Savannah stay with them, but who was she and what else did she want?
The title "Apples Never Fall" is appropriate for this family whose kids did not fall far from the tree. The book shows the fallout within a family that did everything together. Their lives were totally interwoven with the tennis business and the hope that the kids would be tennis stars.
This contemporary family drama is suspenseful with lots of humor in the flashbacks. I didn't totally buy into the character of Savannah, but felt that the other characters seemed realistic. The Delaney marriage was no exception to the fact that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Soup: Page 236 "Savannah is making you soup, and Dad is asleep in front of the television." (minestrone)
+20 task
+10 combo 10.2 Octoberfest (Australia); 20.8 Soup's On!
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 600
10.5 Autumn Colors (Rosemary's Task)Red Island House.Andrea Lee
I tend to have a love/hate relationship with Literary fiction as a genre, and unfortunately this book wasn't one that I loved. The first chapter held promise, introducing us to Shay (a young African American professor), and Senna, who would become her much older Italian husband, as well as to the setting of the Red Island House, and the many Madagascarian characters that would populate the book. Sadly, it never went anywhere from there for me. Like true literary fiction it was much more about setting and examining the characters' lives than about having much of a plot.
Task Total: 10
Review: 10
Combo: 20 (C10.2 - US, 10.8, 20.1, 20.9)
Total: 40
Season Total: 630
10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.8; 10.9
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.5; 20.6; 20.8; 20.10;
10.5 Autumn Colors The Reddest Rose: Romantic Love from the Ancient Greeks to Reality TV by Liv Strömquist
Rose
+15 Task
No style, graphic novel
Task total = 15
Points total = 275
... ; ... ; 10.3 ; ... ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
15.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ...
... ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.8 (x2) ; 20.9 ; 20.10 (x2)
15.2 EotP ReduxThe Girls by Emma Cline
+15, Shirley Jackson Award for Novel 2016
Task total: 15
Season total: 675
10.8 HouseThe Glass Room by Simon Mawer
One of my Goodreads friends leads his review commenting This book is unusual in that its central character is a building rather than a person .... The Glass Room is a real place, the human characters almost entirely fictional. (Just 'almost' because there are a very few historical persons.) The real house is the Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic. It has since become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Viktor and Liesel Landauer live in Město, pronounced Mnyesto, which in Czech means "city". It is the late 1920s, they are in love. Due to the treaty at the end of WWI, Czechoslovakia has become its own country, has a fresh start, and can look to the future. The Landauers hire an architect who will create a house for them that reflects this love and future.
Victor Landauer was a Jew and eventually the family (yes, there were 2 children) escaped to Switzerland. Non-Jewish friends were left behind to see the house occupied by the Nazis. Eventually the house was used by the Soviets. It isn't just a story of the house though the house is more than a setting, more than a vehicle to tell this story. There is a story here of the Landauers and others.
The house, especially the Glasraum, is large. Apparently raum means space, not room, but much of the activity of the novel takes place in one particular room that has two glass walls. A third wall is of onyx. Hard to imagine a room that could hold an audience of 60 for a piano recital having a wall of onyx! We learn that onyx is the Greek word for fingernail, that the onyx wall represents Venus's fingernail. Venus, being the goddess of love, brings much love to this room - and the occasional love-making! The room faces south and west and the sunset sometimes turns that onyx wall blood red. With the Nazis, one could feel that wall being the fires of hell.
I simply loved this book. The people, the house, all of it. 5 robust stars.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.5 - Sea Glass; 20.10 - 2009)
Task total = 30
Season total = 395
PS; thank you, Ann, for this task. It might have been years before I got around to this book. It is one I would consider re-reading, even thought I'm not generally a re-reader.
15.3 EotP- 2018- Miles FranklinBorder Districts by Gerald Murnane
Task=15
Post Total=15
Grand Total=285
---; ---; ---;10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
15.4 EotP- 2010-TS Elliot Prize-White Egrets by Derek Walcott
Task=15
Post Total=15
Grand Total=300
---; ---; ---;10.4 (2x); 10.5; ---; ---; ---; ---; ---;
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;
----; ----; ----; ----; ----; ----;20.7; 20.8; ----; 20.10
20.4 SaramagoThe Body on the Doorstep (Hardcastle & Chaytor Mysteries #1) by A.J. MacKenzie
Kent, 1796 - as per book description
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.3; 10.4; 20.2; 20.9 - AJM)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 690
10.3 9, 10, 11Atomic Habits by James Clear
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.2 approved in help thread)
Post total: 15
Season total: 840
15.8 EotP ReduxPostcards by Annie Proulx
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 1993
+15 Task
+5 Oldies (first published 1991)
Post Total = 20
Season Total = 505
10.1 TBRThe Tin Drum by Günter Grass
Sitting on my shelf since 2010
+10 pts - task
+20 pts - Combo {10.4 - Danzinger Trilogy, 20.2, 20.3, 20.8 blueberry soup)
+5. Pts - oldies (1959)
+5 pts - jumbo (580 pgs)
+10 pts - lost in translation
Task Total - 50 pts
10.4 SeriesThe Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo (20.9, 20.10)
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1996)
+10 pts - LiT
Task Total - 35 pts
10.3 9, 10, 11A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
+10 task
+5 oldie (first published 1982)
+5 selfie
+20 combo (20.1; 20.2; 20.5; 20.6)
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 545
10.2 OktoberfestUmboo, the Elephant (Circus Animal Stories) by Howard Roger Garis
10 pts 10.2 Oktoberfest USA
5 pts 10.6 Bless the Animals
10 pts Review
10 pts Oldies
In this 1918 children’s story, Umboo the circus elephant tells his life story to his friends the other circus animals. Beginning with his birth, the young Umboo learns how to forage in the Indian jungle and enjoys life and learning with the herd. The story presents the virtues of hard work and working to solve problems in a way that would be entertaining for children.
Eventually Umboo is captured and trained to move teak logssnd then is sold and transported to America to train and work in the circus. This is where the story becomes more uncomfortable for the modern reader. Umboo is portrayed as a willling and happy circus performer while becoming a trick animal that has less and less to do with histrue self. The children’s moral that hard work is fun and rewarding carried through but it is increasingly hard to take as an unmitigated good under the circumstances.
The passive acceptance of his work and the changes in his life make me reluctant to recommend this book to a modrn child.
Task Total: 35 pts
Season Total: 335 pts
10.1 10.2 … … 10.6 … … … …
20.1 … … 20.4… … … 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …
20.9 ABCsThe Camp Fire Girls Behind the Lines by Margaret Vandercook
20 pts 20.9 ABCs
5 pts 10.2 Oktoberfest USA
5 pts 10.4 Series
10 pts Review
10 pts Oldies
I picked up this book because of my interest in how children’s literature reflects the mores of the society. In addition, I just couldn’t figure out how a children’s group ended up « behind the lines » in WWI.
First, the Camp Fire groups we have today do not directly translate to the 1918 group described here. The heroines of the story are all high schoolers (16-18) who are carefully chaperoned on a summer long camping trip. They are seen as old enough to get married, and one girl’s story is a cautionary tale about choosing a husband carefully.
The girls’s camp is “Behind the lines” in that it is located within several miles of a military training camp in California shortly after the US entry into WWI. the correct public patriotic sentiment is contrasted with the perceived shortcomings of a pacifist viewpoint. Interestingly the pacifists in the story are portrayed as juveniles with vies that they outgrow rather than as holding irredeemably incorrect opinions.
Hile the Camp Fire Girls do not go to war in this insallment, the teaser for the next book in the series suggests that they do end up in 1918 France eventually.
Task Total: 50 pts
Season Total: 385 pts
10.1 10.2 … … 10.6 … … … …
20.1 … … 20.4… … … 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …
10.3 - 9, 10, 11Valleys, Vehicles & Victims by Tonya Kappes
+10 task
+10 Combo - 10.2 - USA, 10.4
Task total: 20
Grand total: 445
20.9 - ABC'sThe Winter Girls by Roger Stelljes
+20 task
+15 Combo - 10.2 - USA, 10.4, 10.9 - Minnesota
Task total: 35
Grand total: 480
10.2 - Celebrate OktoberfestSunsets, Sabbatical & Scandal by Tonya Kappes
+10 task - USA
+10 combo - 10.3, 10.4
Task total: 20
Grand total: 500
20.9 - A, B, C'sThe Hidden Girl by Roger Stelljes
+20 task
+15 Combo - 10.2 - USA, 10.4, 10.9 - Minnesota
Task total: 35
Grand total: 535
15.6 Eyes on the Prize Redux Mao II by Don DeLillo
15 task 1992 PEN/Faulkner
5 oldie
_____
20
Running total: 615
10.9 NFLIf Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout
Otis Jarrell comes into Wolfe's office, slaps down $10,000 in cold hard cash, and calls "her" a snake. Prove it, get her out of his house, and if there is a divorce between the snake and his son, there is another fifty grand. Wolfe wants no part of it, but he and Archie have had a small spat and Archie leaps on it. Eventually there is a murder, but not the one anticipated.
Rex Stout is such a good writer and of course the characterizations of Archie and Wolfe are unparalleled. I thought the plot in this one a little less than Stout's good standard. I always enjoy Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, but I thought this one just so so. It won't stop me from coming back to the series again and again.
+10 Task (NYC)
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2 - US, 10.4, 20.5 - in thread, 20.9)
+ 5 Oldies (1957)
Task total = 45
Season total = 440
20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska's) TaskOur Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
pub. 2022
Review
This is my first Celeste Ng and mostly, because I wasn't too keen on her earlier books. Contemporary isn't quite my cup of tea plus they just sound sooo painful/heartbreaking for me. Not that this one was any better, tbh, but something about the dystopian world plus having reader buddies for support (thanks, all!) were all it took to convince me. And... I. am. very. very. glad I did!
First of all, I'm just so impressed by the her creative descriptive imageries. There were so much in variety and extraordinarily vivid. I guess if you're not keen on too much descriptions in your novels, you won't actually like this book. However, for me, her prose was absolutely beautiful. While there were a lot of imageries employed, they all have a purpose and are connected in one ways or another if you try to trace them through the novel.
Unfortunately, it's so very sad to acknowledge that the inspiration of this novel is definitely a real life incidents; both historically and current(!). Therefore, so many things feel to very familiar and also quite strikingly real. Please do pay attention to the trigger warnings because I expected myself to flinch and I did. Many would not speak out because "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" so thank you to Celeste Ng for writing and providing voice for those who couldn't for "maybe sometimes, the nail that stuck up pierced the foot that stomped down."
Thank you, Tandem Collective, for organising & publisher for the copy of the book
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.2; 20.1; 20.8*; 20.9 - CN)
+10 Review
*"They closed the windows, then the curtains. The read. They made soup. They made love." p. 177
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 740
10.5 Autumn ColorsJourney to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Lexile: 860
There's definitely a good story here, but the abridgment for the audiobook ruined it. Whatever you do, do not listen to the audio version unless they release an unabridged one. My daughter and I found ourselves frequently confused at the abrupt transitions from scene to scene and we missed out on a lot of the character development that I think made other readers really like this book.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it enough to want to go back and reread the whole thing, so I guess I'll just be left with the feeling that it's likely I missed the point.
+10 Task (Sea)
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.3, 10.7, 20.8 - "They did not feel especially hungry but the managed to get to the dining room, holding on to everything they could find, and to eat some of the soup which the waiters poured into the bowls fastened to the table with a special gadget that came out in storms.", 20.9, 20.10 - 2001)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 560
20.10 publication year is 2 consecutive digitsShards of a Broken Crown published 1998
A great wrap-up to this sub-series of The Rift War Cycle. If you're a fan of Feist's ability to write battles, you will love this book. The action is non stop and there are quite a few WTH moments (at least for me there were).
I am reading Feist's entire library with a buddy and it is so great to have someone to talk to about this amazing world. It has been a joy to see how Feist has grown as a writer. I anticipate more great reads as we carry on. There are, I believe, 31 books in the entire series and this was # 13 for us.
So many of my favorite characters from this series are now gone, but Feist managed to get me attached to some new ones. Moving on to the next sub-series, The Riftwar Legacy, which looks like it is taking us back in time. Maybe some of those old characters will be back 😁
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2,10.4)
Total Task 40
Season Total 630
10.8 HouseThe Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
I've come to think of Sarah Waters as writing strong and interesting female characters, so I was somewhat disappointed to realize that this book was told from the perspective of a male doctor. He frequently assesses the women in the book based on their physical appearance and their fashion choices, which seemed very male, but also kind of annoying.
But the book won me over with its pacing and its creepy story of the crumbling mansion lashing out at the family living there. I loved the way that the secrets of the house were slowly revealed to both the characters and the reader. There are no tidy answers here about what's really going on and the reader is left to wonder--were these people suffering some sort of hysteria? Is there really a paranormal presence?
Simon Vance is an outstanding narrator and he nails it on the audiobook version. This book translates really well to audio format and I highly recommend it for audiobook readers.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (20.8 - "Almost as soon as he had sat down he poured himself a glass of wine, and when Betty had taken the bottle to the other end of the table and approached him with the tureen of soup, he put his hand across his bowl.", 20.9, 20.10 - 2009)
+5 Jumbo
Task total: 40
Grand total: 600
15.3 EotP ReduxGoddess of Filth by V. Castro
+15 Task, Ladies of Horror Fiction award for best Novella 2021
Task total: 15
Season total: 690
15.5 EotPMoon Palace by Paul Auster
+15 Task - 2006 Prince or Princess of Asturias Award for Literature
+ 5 Oldies (1989)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 860
20.10 BirthdayHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Accompanied by Ron and Hermione, Harry abandons what should have been his last year at Hogwarts to fulfil his destiny of facing Lord Voldemort in a battle to the death - but only after long preparation. First they have to hunt down the horcruxes, and on the way they discover the legend of the Deathly Hallows - three magical objects (view spoiler).
I finished listening to Stephen Fry reading the last of the series on two car journeys. He's amazing and made a fascinating narrative even in parts of the story where in retrospect nothing was happening.
10.6: Nagini the snake talks in this book
20.8: “Kreacher came bustling to the table with a large tureen in his hands, and ladled out soup into pristine bowls, whistling between his teeth as he did so.”
+20 Task (2007)
+30 Combo (10.3, 10.4, 10.6, 10.7, 20.8, 20.9)
+10 Review
+10 Jumbo (759 pages)
Post total: 70
Season total: 930
20.10 BirthdayThe Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
After Robin is visited at the agency by the co-author of a successful video cartoon who is later murdered in Highgate cemetery, she and Strike are drawn into an investigation that involves them in long surveillance both online and off, and puts their lives and their agency at risk.
This is a massive book with over 1000 pages. As ever, I loved reading about Strike and Robin, but I've given it 4 stars rather than 5 because I didn't think the plot justified the length this time. The secondary plots (their other investigations) were not compelling, and there was none of the getting to know Cormoran's family that enriched the previous book, Troubled Blood. All the same, from around the half way point I was always reluctant when I had to put it down.
+20 Task (2022)
+10 Combo (10.4, 10.5 black)
+10 Review
+25 Jumbo (1024 pages)
Post total: 65
Season total: 995
20.10 BirthdayThe Taxi Driver's Daughter by Julia Darling
Mac is a Newcastle-on-Tyne taxi driver whose wife is unexpectedly arrested and jailed for shoplifting and assaulting a policeman. In her absence, the family begins to fall apart, especially 15-year-old Caris, who starts skipping school, smoking and drinking, and taking up with an attractive but dangerous boy from the posh side of town.
I found this very readable and didn't put it down one day when stuck at home with Covid. I felt involved with the family, worried for Caris, and was glad that little hints were given of various characters' futures. (view spoiler)
20.8: “Caris spoons the rich brown stew onto the best plates and places them on the table.”
+20 Task (2003)
+10 Combo (10.3, 20.8)
+10 Review
Post total: 40
Season total: 1035
20.7 CervantesThe Moon Sister. Lucinda Riley
3.5 rounded to 4 stars - As I seem wont to do, I started this series on book five, (because it had an MPG of Spain). It seems like any of the books could function as a stand alone, each sister comes from a different place and was adopted by a rich Swiss man. In this story, they are all young adults, Tiggy is just out of uni, and her father has recently died and left her a letter telling her about her Spanish heritage. She travels to Spain and learns about her mother, a Gypsy flamenco dancer. Much of the story is about her Spanish family, with her role taking up about a third of the book. I listened to some of the book, but ended up reading the print version because the pace seemed a little slow on the audio. I may well go back and read more of the series, there's a mystery or two to be solved.
Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 15 (C10.4, 20.8 turkey soup, 20.9)
Jumbo: 10 (742 pages)
Total: 55
Season Total: 685
10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.8; 10.9
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.10;
10.4 SeriesArrow's Flightby Mercedes Lackey
#2 in the series
Task +10
Combo-10.2 Octoberfest-US +5
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 250
10.1 TBRTess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Tess Durbeyfield is a beautiful young woman from a country village who meets misfortune over and over again. The cad, Alec D'Urberville, does harm to the innocent Tess that sets her oppression in motion. The son of a preacher, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love, but is upset when her past becomes known. Tess is proud and very resourceful under difficult circumstances. She worries about the survival of her young siblings as well as her own situation, and often sacrifices for their well-being.
Author Thomas Hardy's writing is beautiful as he describes the natural rural area where Tess feels comfortable, especially a dairy farm where she works as a milk maid. In Victorian England, industrialization was changing the country as well as the cities. Modern farm machinery, such as a steam thresher, is depicted as a shaking, roaring monster on another farm. It's obvious that Hardy loved the natural beauty of the country villages of southwestern England.
There are characters with different senses of right and wrong in this story. Organized religion and social attitudes are different from the laws of Nature. Descriptions of Angel and Tess on the lush dairy farm bring the Garden of Eden to mind. Another scene shows Alec with a pitchfork in a smoky field looking like a hellish vision. Hardy's writing shows what a double standard exists for men and women in matters of sex and divorce.
The novel does have so many misfortunes and coincidences that it does stretch the limits of credibility at times. However, the human reactions of sorrow, guilt, pride, uncertainty, love, and joy seem very realistic. Tess is a young woman trying to cope with all that life and society are throwing at her, and she is often depicted like a bird in a trap. The novel swept me up with its tragic story and poetic language.
+10 task (added to TBR on 4/30/21)
+ 5 combo 20.5 Faulkner
+10 oldie (1891)
+ 5 jumbo (519 pages)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 640
Task 10.4 Series (Ed's Task)Read a book that is part of a series.
The Town House (House #1) (1959) by Norah Lofts (Hardcover 381 pages)
+10 Task
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1947-1997)
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 270 + 15 = 285
Post 387 Jayme wrote: "20.10 BirthdayHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoneby J.K. Rowling
Task +20
combo +25 (10.2, 10.3 JK Rowling, 10.4 series, 10.7 geocaching adventure MPG, 20.9 )
Book Tot..."
I'm sorry, Jayme. This doesn't qualify for 10.2 as Rowling was born in the UK.
20.9 ABCsCrampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
This is one of the earliest Barbara Pym novels, although not published until after her death. It's set in North Oxford among vicars and dons and their families, and covers one academic year, in which various romantic entanglements are made, gossiped about, and then mostly broken.
Crampton Hodnet is an imaginary village invented by a curate to hide the fact that he has been walking in the country with a lady, who is amazed at his story, "for she had never before, as far as she could remember, heard a clergyman telling what she knew to be deliberate lies."
This comedy of manners is a lot of fun - a cosy comfort read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1985)
Post total: 35
Season total: 1070
20.1 main character is a person of color.Jarret is a groom for the horse
Horse by Geraldine Brooks-
I have a "hit or miss" relationship with Brooks and so I was torn about reading this. I am glad I fought off my doubts and plunged into it. I loved it. Whether or not I like some of her books, Brooks research is impeccable and I respect that so much in an author.
Although duel time-lines have worn thin with me, this one was done so well that I was able to overlook that. I did however get a bit peeved when a 3rd time-line was thrown in, but again, done well and so I moved passed my agitated state.
Normally in books like this I have a preference for the older time-line, this time I enjoyed both equally. The story of Lexington had me so enthralled, I had google up on my phone constantly, as I was reading. I am still googling and reading about him. The story of Theo and Jess, although heart wrenching in the end, was also very well done.
We were scarcely through the soup when Anne Warfield, knowing she'd drawn blood in the parlor, started plying her spur again.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.1 -Brooks was born in Australia, 20.8, 20.10)
Total Task 45
Season Total 675
20.9 author's initials appear in alphabetical orderStone of Farewell by Tad Williams
+20 Task
+Oldie 5
+ 15 Combo (10.2, 10.4, 20.10)
Total Task 40
15.5 EotPMy Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
+15 David J. Langum Sr. Prize nominee 2010
Task total: 15
Season total: 205
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 387 Jayme wrote: "20.10 BirthdayHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoneby J.K. Rowling
Task +20
combo +25 (10.2, 10.3 JK Rowling, 10.4 series, 10.7 geocaching adventu..."
Sorry I got a little points happy :)
10.5 Autumn ColorsA Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
+10 pts - task
+25 pts - combo (10.2-US, 20.1- First Nations, 20.2 -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Yello... , 20.6 - #128 on list, 20.8 - beef stew, soup made from boiled sheep ribs)
+5 pts - oldies (1987)
Task Total -40 pts
15.2 EotPMemoirs of a Polar Bear by Yōko Tawada
15 pts 15.2 2018 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize Nominee
Task Total: 15pts
Season Total: 400 pts
10.1 10.2 … … 10.6 … … … …
20.1 … … 20.4… … … 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 … … … … … … … …
10.2 OctoberfestIreland
The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan
+10 pts - task
+15 pts - combo (10.8, 20.2- although had published short story collections, this was his first novel per author bio page, 20.9)
Task Total - 25 pts
15.1 Ned Kelly AwardWe Begin at the End Chris Whitaker
+15 task
+5 20.9 ABC
Post total: 20
Season total: 20
10.4 SeriesThe Nature of the Beast Louise Penny
+10 task Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11
+5 20.9 ABC
Post total: 15
Season total: 35
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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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Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Review: Carson uses mythology (Geryon and the tenth labor of Herakles) reimagined as romance as her jumping off point. This leads to a beautifully sad story about surviving trauma, surviving the tragedy of young love, and what it is like to always feel different and apart from everyone else.
The poetic style makes it easy to move between myth, abstract idea, and scene. It also makes every word and image valuable.
Some "quotes"
(and my thoughts on them):
“Not touching
but joined in astonishment as two cuts lie parallel in the same flesh.”
(I love how this brings together the way that passion can leave you in awe, but also wounded and lonely. The line between loved and scorched can be thin.)
“you know how apart people are in time together and apart at the same time”
(the repetition of 'apart' and 'time' let the mind play with what this line really means)
“Like the terrestrial crust of the earth
which is proportionately ten times thinner than an eggshell, the skin of the soul
is a miracle of mutual pressures.”
(strength and resilience are in unlikely places - in our ability to bend and crumble)
+10 Task (red)
+15 Combo (10.2 – Canada; 20.9 – AC; 20.109 – pub’d 1998)
+10 Review
Task total = 35
Season total = 450