Reading with Style discussion
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Completed Tasks FA 23
20.3 Dickens She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard
Task=20
Multiple=5
Oldie=10 (1887)
Task Total=35
Grand Total=340
Tasks Completed:
10.3; 10.7 (6x)
20.1 (3x); 20.3 (2x); 20.6; 20.9
15.9 Celebration of StylesPortraits of a Marriage by Sándor Márai
+15 Task (LiT - Hungarian)
Season total = 745
10.5 October (Karen's Task) Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
+10 task
+15 Prize-worthy [Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel (2007); Locus Award for Best First Novel (2008); ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel (2008)]
Task total = 25
Season Total = 310
20.4 Golden Age The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
+20 task
+5 oldies (1951)
Task total = 25
Season Total = 345
15.4 CoSThe Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa
+15 Task, LiT translated from Japanese
Task total: 15
Season total: 385
15.5 CoSBeing Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
+15 Task, Non-Western Vietnamese author
Task total: 15
Season total: 400
20.3 DickensThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
+20 Task, their lives overlapped from 1812-1859
+15 Oldies, pub. 1820
Task total: 35
Season total: 435
10.8 FriendsBe Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee by Shannon Lee
+10 Task
Task total: 10
Season total: 445
10.7 ScrabbleThe Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
+10 Task, 25 point scrabble total
+5 Multiple
Task total: 15
Season total: 460
20.10 Letters Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard
+20 Task (Jack Greenfeldt writes a letter to Archie in pencil)
+ 5 Multiple
+ 5 Oldies (1993)
Post Total = 30
Season Total = 1155
20.7 ChristieThe Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market Naomi OreskesErik Conway
The Big Myth has a lot of interesting information and an intriguing premise. The authors trace the campaign of big corporations and organizations representing them to convince Americans that free markets preserve individual freedom and democracy, that regulation is the same as a planned economy or communism.
For many years I have wondered why some economists and politicians equate socialism and communism.
This book goes back to the era when businesses were trying to preserve child labor and prevent workers' compensation insurance from being required.
The history is interesting, although I didn't need all the work the authors did to show links between the individuals moving between various organizations. It was instructive to see how deregulation worked in some instances but was disastrous in other industries.
The authors preached a little too much for my taste. Let the record speak for itself.
+20 task covers history from late 19th century to near present
+10 review
+5 jumbo
Task total: 35
Season total: 375
10.4 Debut Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
As stated in her wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_...
+10 Task
+10 Prize-Worthy (Australian Book Industry Award for International Book 2023, Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Novel 2022)
Task total =20
Points total = 500
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; ... ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 ; 20.10
20.9 Popular ScienceOther Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Sience book, rating 3.88 as of today
+20 Task
+5 Multiple
Task total = 25
Points total = 525
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; ... ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10
20.7 ChristieAu coeur des solitudes by Lomig
This graphic novel is a biography of John Muir, who lived 76 years
(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir)
+20 Task
+5 Multiples Multiples
Task total = 25
Points total = 550
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; ... ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 (x2) ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10
15.1 (2nd) Celebration of StylesSonge à la douceur by Clémentine Beauvais
Not a novel : poetry
+ 15 Task
Task total = 15
Points total = 565
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; ... ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 (2) ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 (x2) ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10
20.3 Dickens The Chimes by Charles Dickens
Task=20
Multiple=5
Oldie=15 (1844)
Task Total=40
Grand Total=380
Tasks Completed:
10.3; 10.7 (6x)
20.1 (3x); 20.3 (3x); 20.6; 20.9
20.1 Author! Author!The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Yesterday when I logged into Goodreads, I saw that the Goodreads Choice Awards voting was open. I'm always curious to see what's up for the prize and at least a handful of the nominated books end up on my TBR. This immediately jumped out as I hadn't decided on a book for this task and it appeared to fit.
I *loved* it! It was a little bit Ready Player One (an eccentric millionaire creates a game to reward one exceptional player) and a whole lot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (an eccentric genius invites a few lucky people into the world he was created to compete to become a part of that world).
Jack Masterson wrote the most popular series of kids' books ever--a series of over 30 books, all set on Clock Island which is overseen by the Mastermind. Jack lives on an island off the coast of Maine which he has turned into Clock Island. Over the years, many kids have dreamed of running away to Clock Island...Lucy is one of the few who actually made it.
As an adult, she is invited to return to the island to participate in a game that could change her life--a life that has not at all turned out the way she'd dreamed. The winner of the game gets the only copy of Masterson's as-yet unpublished final book (one he wrote after a years-long hiatus) to do with as they see fit.
It's not really a mystery, not exactly a romance, not precisely an adventure--though there are elements of each found here.
It's just...magical.
It's not a perfect book--the writing is just on the edge of being YA (though it's not classified as such) and there were definitely a few eye-roll-y moments, but overall I was there for it and was unabashedly swept up in the magical world Shaffer created.
+20 Task, whole thing revolves around the author and his creations
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 490
Task 10.7 Scrabble (Anika's Task) The popular word game finally hit it big when, in 1952, the owner of Macy's first played the game, loved it, and began stocking it at his famous store. Now it's 2023. Read a book whose title would score at least 23 points using the Scrabble scoring system:The scrabble total for this title is:
27
A Stopover in Venice (2008) by Kathryn Walker
+10 Task
+05 Repeat a task
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 325 + 15 = 340
15.10 Celebration of StylesVanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar
+15 Task (Aged - 1915-1994)
+100 Finisher bonus
+ 50 All 7 styles
Season total = 910
10.9 Georgia Killing Floor by Lee Child
Jack Reacher is an ex military enforcer now drifting around the USA on his retirement pay. On a whim, he stops in the small town of Margrave, Georgia, only to be arrested for murder within minutes of arrival. He may have been hundreds of miles away when the killing happened, but the case turns out to be linked to him in ways he could not have imagined.
First in a series, and a page-turner for thriller fans. The cartoonish level of violence and Jack Reacher's incredible success in wiping out all opposition seemed ridiculous at times, as did the rise of a certain character from the apparently dead, but it always kept my interest and I looked forward to opportunities to get back to the audiobook.
+10 Task (set about 90% in the US state of Georgia)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1997)
+15 Prize Worthy
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1195
20.10 Letters The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
A menacing circus containing a huge stuffed whale appears in the main street of a small town in the Carpathian region of Hungary. Following along come hundreds of people attracted by the spectacle, and something diabolical is unleashed.
This was published in 1989 and I assume the atmosphere of panic and destruction is related to the end of communism, but I kept thinking of climate change and how that might destabilize our communities. My heart went out to the character of Valuska, a simple innocent fascinated by the stars and supported by people who'd known him all his life, but completely unprepared for sudden change.
I would have given this 5 stars if it had paragraph breaks. I know that's kind of petty, but being faced with solid rectangular blocks of text for 300+ pages made my eyes slide and my attention wander. I tried to keep focused, but I'm sure I missed a lot.
+20 Task (Valuska handwrites a note to his mother and sticks it behind her apartment door handle)
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple
+ 5 Oldies (1989)
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1235
15.6 CoSThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
+15 Task, Young (b. 1983)
Task total: 15
Season total: 505
20.8 MorrisonYellowface by R.F. Kuang
I don't even know where to begin on this review...
This book made me laugh out loud, cringe, and straight up want to puke in equal measure.
It's so many things mashed into one that I don't even know how to start untangling how I feel about it.
It's cultural appropriation and racism and PC-culture and social media critique and a sharp look at the publishing industry and awful characters (not awfully written characters, but the characters themselves are all pretty reprehensible) with an unputdownable narrative and even though I'm sure I didn't entirely understand it, I (mostly) enjoyed the wild ride.
June and Athena are "friends"--though frenemies would be more accurate. They met in a writing course at university: Athena graduated with a book deal, June...was a dud.
They remained sort-of friends, like the kind of friends who get together for drinks once a month. Something life changing happens that night that sets off the stomach-churning events that follow.
This reminded me a little of You, where the narrator is disgusting but because they're the narrator you're kind of on their side(?).
I know none of this is a *glowing* review, but it really was good...
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 535
15.8 Celebration of StylesKingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
Aged - author lived to age 91 (1907-1998)
Task total: 15
Season total: 540
20.10 LetterMr. Guelpa by Vance Thompson
Very twisty mystery with all kinds of unexpected things happening. There are cases of false identity, disappearances, and apparent murder thatcause Mr. Guelpa to puzzle over what happened.
Despite his astute nature and reputation as a criminologist not even Guelph really figures out what is going on. Two different confessions finally disclose the murderers at the very end of the book.
Good read with a very implausible plot device leading to the actual criminals. Characters are well drawn, even fairly minor ones. While this appears to be a stand alone mystery, I would have liked to see a longer series featuring Mr Guelpq.
20 pts 20.10 Letters Beth Forsyte wrote to Mr Ringgold
10 pts Review
5 pts Multiple
10 pts Oldies
Task Total: 45 pts Note See librarian thread for correction of page numbers.
Season Total: 605 pts
627
10.1… … … … 10.7 … … …
…20.2 20.3 … … …20.7 20.8 … 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …
10.7 ScrabbleWhen McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich 4 stars
The title here says "Hidden", the Gr's blurb uses "Explosive". Personally I don't believe those adjectives are correct. Although the McKinsey firm strives for secrecy, I among a lot of others I am sure, were aware of their presence from the beginning of many of their more high profile clients (thinking of the tobacco and Pharma industries).
If you know nothing about McKinsey this could be an eye-opening book. Most people from Business/Financial backgrounds know the name McKinsey. Many of them dreamed of becoming a part of the McKinsey team. Of those that made it there, many of them were disenchanted when the hard truth of what they do become apparent.
After the initial chapters of the book, the authors delve into specific clients that McKinsey took on. Of those I read about the ones that interested me most were the ones I knew nothing about: The Sports franchises and McKinsey's move in with the Saudi Family and MSB.
A good expose but I believe only a small percentage of readers will find it a book for them.
+10 Task (55 letter points)
+ 10 Review
+5 Multiple
Total Task 25
Season Total 570
20.10 LettersThe Final Case by David Guterson
The letter writer is Royal, the narrator's father. "Behind it was a photocopy of a letter my father had written three weeks before he died, in longhand, to the minister-in-chief of the Ministry of Woman's and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia."
Task total = 20
Season total = 20
20.3 DickensThe Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
I can't believe it's been over 5 years since my last Dumas novel.
Dumas is all about plot, forget characterization. His characters are all 2-dimensional but it's that plot! As I can only read translations, I shouldn't comment on writing style. However, what I read is typical 19th Century: longer, more complex sentences than even 20th Century writing and dialogue that conveys the thought adequately (but did people really talk that way?).
Where Dumas shines is in his writing of realistic scenes. This opens with a mob scene - I could almost hear the people shouting. This is followed by scenes at a rural home with large gardens and what we call greenhouses - beautiful. Later there are scenes in a prison where those scenes are quiet with the people whispering. All of these are so well depicted as to think Dumas was intentionally helping future screenwriters. As this was originally published in 1850, we can be confident he wasn't even thinking of his novels being adapted to film.
This is not quite up to the standards of his The Count of Monte Cristo, but it is very good. I'm glad I have another Dumas in my near future and I can only hope it is at least as good as this, worth a strong 4 stars.
+20 Task (1802-1870)
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple (first claimed at Post #120)
+15 Oldies (1850)
Task total = 50
Season total = 960
Task 15.4Not a Novel
If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir (2023) by John Stamos [791.4502]
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 340 + 15 = 355
15.8 -Celebration of Styles-AgedDirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich
Born 1943 https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
Task 15
Season Total 585
15.9 Celebration of StylesAll Through the Night by Mary Higgins Clark
Aged - age 93 (1927-2020)
Task total: 15
Season total: 555
15-9 Reading with Style-Young The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison AKA Sarah Monette (born 1974)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_M...
Task Points 15
Season Total 600
10.5 OctoberThe Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
+10 Task
+15 Prize-Worthy (a lot of award this book has, for instance Hugo Award for Best Novel 2009, Newbery Medal 2009, Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel 2009)
Task total = 25
Points total = 590
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 (2) ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 (x2) ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10
20.6 Wilder Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Told from the viewpoint of Meggie aged 12
Task: 20
Prize worthy: 15
Flicker Tale Children's Book Award Winner 2006, Zilveren Griffel Winner 2006, Nene Award Winner 2009, Phantastik-Preis der Stadt Wetzlar Winner 2004, Literaturpreis der Jury der jungen Leser Winner 2004
Jumbo: 5
Post total: 40
Season total: 340
15.5 Celebration of Styles 2.0Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
LiT
15 task
______
15
Running total: 1100
20.10 Letters The Adventures of Maqroll: Four Novellas : Amirbar/the Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call/Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships/Triptych on Sea and Land by Álvaro Mutis
The second of two volumes of novellas about the wandering seaman Maqroll, nicknamed "the Gaviero", who lives by "his principle of always allowing things to happen regardless of the consequences." In this volume his life is not so often threatened by these consequences as it was in the first volume, and some of the stories centre on his friends rather than Maqroll himself.
I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first volume, probably partly because there was less tension and partly because reading all seven novellas over two months became too much of the same style. 3 stars.
Letter from Sverre Jensen to Maqroll: "I recognised the simple, severe handwriting he had learned in school and never changed."
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple
+ 5 Oldies (1995)
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1275
15.10 Celebration of StylesThe Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Young, b. 1984.
Task: 15
Completion Bonus: 100
All Seven Styles Bonus: 50 (see below)
Total Points This Post: 165
Total Points So Far: 300
Styles for this sub-challenge:
-- Lost in Translation – Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
-- Non Western – Untamed Shore by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican author
-- 1001 – The Turn of the Screwby Henry James
-- Canon – The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
-- Not a Novel – The White People by Arthur Machen, short stories
-- Not a Novel -- Babylon by Paul Kriwatzik, nonfiction
-- Aged – Act of Mercy by Peter Tremayne, b. 1943
-- Aged – If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face by Alan Alda, b. 1936
-- Young – Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, b. 1976
-- Young – The Salt Grows Heavy by Kassandra Khaw, b. 1984
10.10 Group ReadI read Joanna's Choice: Exhalation by Ted Chiang.
Task Points: 10
Prize-Worthy Bonus -- 3 or more Awards: 15
from GR awards list on book's mp:
Locus Award for Best Collection 2020,
Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Ray Bradbury Prize 2020,
Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work 2021,
Premi Ictineu for Millor antologia fantàstica (2021)
Points This Post: 25
Grand Total Points: 325
That does it for me for this Challenge! Thanks Elizabeth for all this organization! You have been a true challenger!
20.8 Morrison Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
Task=20
Oldie=5 (1985)
Task Total=25
Grand Total=405
Tasks Completed:
10.3; 10.7 (6x)
20.1 (3x); 20.3 (3x); 20.6; 20.8; 20.9
15.6 CoSAs We Are Now by May Sarton
+15 Task, Aged: author lived to age 83
Task total: 15
Season total: 550
10.7 - ScrabbleThe Killing Tide by Kate Bold
+10 task - score 23
+5 multiple
Task total: 15
Grand total: 265
10.7 - ScrabbleThe Bernhard File by Diana Xarissa
+10 task score 27
+5 multiple
Task total: 15
Grand total: 280
20.2 WarLife Class by Pat Barker
Post Total = 20
Season Total = 1330
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5);10.8; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5 (x5); 15.6 (x2); 15.7 (x2); 15.8; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 (x4); 20.2; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
20.10 LettersThe Best of the Best American Mystery Stories: The First Ten Years by Otto Penzler
The letter writer is Dragon. "When Cousin Dragon was about nine years old, he started in writing to Maurie, 'America's my dream, I need to come to America, I hate these commies over here'...and Maurie read these letters for about a decade."
+20 task
+ 5 multiple (post 629)
Task total = 25
Season total = 60
(I forgot to mention that this is a carryover book that I started in July and was at 47% when the Fall season began.)
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Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
Score: 47
I guess it is safe to say, after reading seven of his novels, that I am a fan of Moore’..."
+5 Oldies