Reading with Style discussion
Fall 2025 Home
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Completed Tasks
10.4 Elmore LenardJoleneby Mercedes Lackey
L and M in Elmore
Task +10
Female author +10
Task total: 20
Grand total: 35
30.1 Go for the GreenThink of a Garden and Other Plays by John Kneubuhl
Review: I'm no expert on plays, but I found this collection fascinating. There are 3 plays here, set in American Samoa and Hawaii. All of them are about culture: the tragedy of its destruction, the horror visited by white culture on the cultures (and people) of the South Pacific, and Kneubuhl's urgent message to his people that saving their cultures is still entirely up to them.
Reading these plays on that sociopolitical level was a great experience. But on top of that, these plays are brilliant experiments in metafiction (not sure if that's the right word in the case of a play). Think of a Garden is the most straight-forward of the bunch, but still features the "writer" who is the ostensible author of what we are seeing, and also the grown-up version of the child main character.
The other two plays are about people putting on a play, coming in and out of character, manipulating set dressing, and more author/writer-as-character. The third play (called A Play: A Play) is a play about a play about a man who just wrote a play -- and soon we see that even when the actors are out of character they are still actually in a play... so, fascinating reading from the structural perspective too.
+30 Task (Set about 65% in American Samoa)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.1 - Avg rating 4.10, 10 ratings)
Post total: 45
Season total: 185
15.5 SSBSquare B2 - Set 51%+ in capital city of not US, UK, etc.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
+15 Task (Set ~80% in Bogota, Colombia)
Post total: 15
Season total: 200
B1 I1 N1 G1 O1
B2 I2 N2 G2 O2
B3 I3 N3 G3 O3
B4 I4 N4 G4 O4
B5 I5 N5 G5 O5
15.4 SSBSquare B -3 - author's latest book.
Weepers by Peter Mendelsund, Published June 17, 2025.
Task total = 15
Season Total = 60
Post 149 Claire wrote: "Sweet sixteen bingo O5 A book with an alliterative title (at least 2 words, all words must start with the same sound)
15 points
Total: 465 points
✔️✔️📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️✔️✔️📚
📚📚📚✔️📚
✔️📚✔️📚✔️"
Claire, you haven't told us the book title and author! Please could you edit the post and add them?
20.10 Fall VacationThe Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
A group of Japanese students, members of a mystery book club, decide to spend a week on an island that has been uninhabited since a grisly multiple murder took place there. But from the beginning we know that someone is planning to kill them, one by one, inspired by Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’. We just don’t know who it is.
I found the idea of this intriguing, and it is very well plotted. The style is rather dry, but I’m coming to see that this is a feature of the Japanese mystery genre and not a fault. There is a parallel story running at the same time with some people on the mainland, which I thought wasn’t so great, with certain things hard to believe. But overall I thought it was an excellent mystery.
+20 Task (author born Japan and book set there)
+10 Review
Task total = 30
Season Total = 195
10.8 Bookshop or LibraryThe Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
This book finds itself in clever conversation with dystopian literature, particularly with the likes of Farenheit 451, 1984, but also, rather unexpectedly, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I adored the conversation here about book censorship and the role of imagination. The author has some things to say about the way that stories and books shape people and society. At the same time, she's doing something clever in the structure of the book and the conversation with existing stories. I'm also intrigued by the author's personal story of running a bookstore in Kuwait, where she has personally experienced book inspectors and book banning.
I don't know that this book is marketed for a teen audience, but I think it would work really well for high school readers. I'm planning to recommend it to my eighth grade daughter. If I'd realized how much I'd like this one, I would have listened to it with her, but right now she and I are busy with When the Moon Hits Your Eye.
In any event, I highly recommend this, particularly as a companion to anyone reading 1984. The audiobook was well narrated and the book works well in that format for those that like listening to books.
+10 Task
+10 Female
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.8)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 125
15.5 Sweet Sixteen BingoI1: Title and subtitle do not contain the word The
Deserts, Driving, & Derelicts by Tonya Kappes
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 150
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3
...; G2
15.6 Sweet Sixteen BingoN4: A book with both a 1 and 6 in the number of pages in the MPE
Christmas, Criminals, and Campers by Tonya Kappes
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 165
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4;
...; G2
15.7 Sweet Sixteen BingoN5: A book about a vacation
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 180
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4; N5
...; G2
15.8 Sweet Sixteen BingoO2:Author with a six-letter last name
Forests, Fishing, & Forgery by Tonya Kappes
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 195
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4; N5
...; G2
...; O2;
15.9 Sweet Sixteen BingoO4: Neither title nor author name contain the letter E
Scission by Tim Winton
+15 task
+5 old
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 215
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4; N5
...; G2
...; O2;...' O4
10.7 Be Curious (Karen Michele's task)Read a book that has been shelved at least 4 times as “curiosity”.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Shelved 12 times as curiosity
+10 task
+5 prizeworthy (Goodreads Choice Award for Science & Technology (2017))
+10 combo (10.1; 20.6)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 240
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 10.7;
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4; N5
...; G2
...; O2;...' O4
10.10 Group readsOn the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle
+10 task
+10 female
+5 prizewothy (Nordic Council Literature Prize (Nordisk Raads Litteraturpris) (2022))
+ 10 combo (10.9 - "Sometimes I order bread and cheese, or yoghurt with fruit."; 20.6)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 275
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 10.7;...; ...; 10.10
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.6; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
I1; ...; ...; ...; I5
...; ...; N3; N4; N5
...; G2
...; O2;...' O4
20.8 A Touch of MagicThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
This book has an interesting premise—a young woman makes a deal with a dark god for her freedom from an unwanted marriage and the small village she grew up in. She finds that what it means is that no one remembers her, not even her family, she can leave no mark on the world and that she will not die. So she moves through the world for 300 years, lonely, and resisting the god she made the deal with.
The author does a wonderful job describing forests, storms, elegant restaurants, warm beds and daily lives. I listened to the audiobook. The reader does a good job.
+20 task
+10 female author
+5 combo 20.6
+5 combo 10.9 her father’s bread and cheese to fill her belly
+10 review
Task total: 50
Season total: 50
20.5 Elizabeth's Comfort ZoneNorthanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Catherine Morland is the seventeen-year-old protagonist in this delightful coming-of-age novel. She comes from a small town but has the opportunity to visit Bath with her childless neighbors, the Allens, to act as a companion for Mrs Allen at the social events. She meets the wonderful brother and sister in the Titney family, as well as the gold-digging Thorpe siblings. She's rather naive, and does not realize how manipulative Isabella and John Thorpe behave.
The book is part homage to, and part satire of, the gothic genre. Catherine loves gothic romance novels, and her imagination is fueled by the events in the novels. This leads to some humorous scenes, as well as misunderstandings, when she visits Northanger Abbey, the home of the wealthy Titneys. Her mind imagines the home as the scene of some gothic horrors.
As in all the Austen novels, a person's wealth is a very important factor when choosing a mate. A misreporting of the wealth of the Moreland family leads to complications.
Catherine is a likable protagonist, and the descriptions of the social interactions at Bath are witty. She has two men interested in courting her which provokes jealousy. The novel was published posthumously in 1817 with "Persuasion." This is a charming addition to the list of Austen novels that I'm reading this year.
+20 task
+10 female
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 265
15.4 Sweet Sixteen BingoSquare B4 - title starts and ends with "t"
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
+15 task
Task total=15
Season total=165
10.3 1925 Movies - Set in France All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky
Completely set in France
Task 10
Female: 10
Task total = 20
Season total = 20
20.4 Uncommon LetterAll Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Task 20
Combo 15(10.2- 225 tags; 10.4 - all initials; 20.6 )
Task total : 35
Season total = 45
15.1 Sweet Sixteen Bingo - I1 Title or substitle does not contain the word THE
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Task 15
Season total : 60
Sweet Sixteen Bingo - G1 Author's first book
I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
Task 15
Season total : 75
15.3 Sweet Sixteen Bingo - B2 The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Book set in Copenhagen in Denmark
Task 15
Season total : 90
15.4 Swwet Sixteen Bingo G2 : published in 2023
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
Task : 15
Season total : 105
20.1 Happy Birthday Elizabeth! Read any book with an average rating over 3.74 AND under 1001 ratings.
The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph by Scott Ellsworth 4.24 565 Ratings
Please don't let the title deceive you. This book is about more than a basketball game.
Taking place in 1943, North Carolina, it begins with the story of the boys who grew into the men who played this secret game, defying the social mores of the day in the U.S South. Not giving anything away by telling you the game was between North Carolina College for Negros and an all-white Duke Medical Student team.
It weaves in and out with the history of basketball and how it became a phenomenon in the college world. The actual game takes up one chapter near the very end of the book.
The research that Ellsworth dug into for this masterpiece is apparent throughout. It is, in the end, a tribute to the men who played this forbidden game and the coming together for the love of the game.
+20 task
+5 Review
+5 Prize Worthy
Total Task 30
Season Total 50
15.4 Sweet Sixteen BingoO5 - Alliterative title
Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine by Diane Williams
(Don't read this book if you're looking for an alliterative title. 1 star)
Task total: 15
Season total: 280
20.8 A Touch of MagicSpirits Abroad by Zen Cho
+20 task MPG magical realism
+10 Combo (10.9 You could not make tomyam out of a block of pecorino cheese
+10 Female
+5 Prize-worthy
Task total = 45
Season Total = 200
20.4 Uncommon LetterThe Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold
+20 task OX
+10 Combo (10.9 the main characters ate cheese more than once, 20.6)
+10 Female
Task total = 40
Season Total = 240
20.2 War BabiesThe Islanders by Christopher Priest
+20 task born 1943
+10 Prize-worthy – won 2 awards
Task total = 30
Season Total = 270
Repost for post 149Sweet sixteen bingo
Task 15.15
O5 A book with an alliterative title (at least 2 words, all words must start with the same sound)
Durven dromen
Sarah Simmelink
15 points
Total: 465 points
✔️✔️📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️✔️✔️📚
📚📚📚✔️📚
✔️📚✔️📚✔️
20.10 Fall Vacation (Joanna's task)read a book by an author born in Japan or South Korea or set more than 50% in Japan and/or South Korea.
Human Acts
Han Kang
20 points + 5 points ( combo : 10.2) +10 points (female) =35 points
Total: 500 points
Sweet sixteen Bingo 15.16 I5 a book without chapter numbers
Sleuteloog
Hella S. Haasse
✔️✔️📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️✔️✔️📚
📚📚📚✔️📚
✔️✔️✔️📚✔️
15 points
Total points: 515 points< /b>
20.2 War BabiesLeadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin b. 1943
Goodwin tells us the stories of four presidents who showed good leadership—Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and LBJ. She describes their childhood—poverty, privilege, and in between, their education—very little (mostly self taught), public education including a state teachers’ college to tudors and elite institutions. Goodwin takes us through the crises that she thinks helped form them-deaths of parents and loved ones, ill health, and depression. Two of them stepped into office from the vice presidency when their predecessor was killed.
Teddy Roosevelt’s handling of the coal strike was the crisis that I was least familiar with. Goodwin lays out the challenge facing the president clearly and how Roosvelt decided to intervene as the representative of the people who were facing a winter without heat in a time when the government didn’t have a role in labor disputes.
There is plenty of food for thought here.
+20 task
+10 female
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 90
15.5 SSBSquare I 2 - A book set more than 200 years before the time it was published.
The Heretic's Apprentice by Ellis Peters
+15 Task (1143)
+5 Old (1989)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 100+20=120
10.9 Cheese! (Marie's task)Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine by Diane Williams
+10 task ("Yvonne Meldrum, when she appeared, brought in a tray of Limburger cheese, saltines, and Cheddar Goldfish." - Human Comb, 96%
+10 female
Task total=20
Season total=185
10.3 1925 MoviesDeath and Fromage (Follet Valley Mysteries #2) by Ian Moore
+10 Task
Post total: 10
Season total: 275
10.2 Bookshops of Melbourneread a book shelved at least 225 times as literary-fiction.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang
10 points
+ 5 points combo 20.10
+ female 10 points
+ 2 prizes 10 points = 35 points
Total: 550 points
15.5 Sweet Sixteen BingoO1 - one word title at least 10 letters
Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
+15 Task
+50 First Bingo
Post total = 65
Season total = 205
Post 170:Tawallah wrote: "20.4 Uncommon Letter
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Task 20
Combo 15(10.2- 225 tags; 10.4 - all initials; 20.6 )
Task total : 35
Season tot..."
For your own tracking, you've got an addition error in your grand total -- Post 169 = 20 + Post 170 = 35 --> Total = 50
Post 175:Joanne wrote: "20.1 Happy Birthday Elizabeth!
Read any book with an average rating over 3.74 AND under 1001 ratings.
[book:The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph..."
+5 -- Review is +10 not +5
Post 177:Coralie wrote: "20.8 A Touch of Magic
Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho
+20 task MPG magical realism
+10 Combo (10.9 You could not make tomyam out of a block of pecorino cheese
+10 Femal..."
I'm counting this as combo with 10.9 and 20.4. If there's something else you meant, let me know.
20.7 500 Great Books by WomenThe Land of Little Rain by Mary Hunter Austin
There are many things to enjoy in this collection of essays. Foremost is Austin’s deep love and understanding of the desert area that she was familiar with. She obviously spent a great deal of time observing, seemingly without judgement or prejudice. She had a great deal of empathy for both the Indigenous people and the flora and fauna of the area. This seems to be unusual for the time (this was published in 1903). Her writing is a mix of down to earth and academic. I found that her turn of phrase didn’t flow as well as I would have liked, but that may just be the age of the collection. The individual essays are short, but I would recommend reading them slowly, over a few days. 3*
20 task
10 female
10 review
10 combo 10.1, 10.6
_______
50
Running total: 365
Post 182:Claire wrote: "Sweet sixteen Bingo 15.16
I5 a book without chapter numbers
Sleuteloog
Hella S. Haasse
✔️✔️📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️✔️✔️📚
📚📚📚✔️📚
✔️✔️✔️📚✔️
15 points
Total points: 515..."
This book was already claimed in Post 139 for Square N4. Do you want to keep it at N4 or move it to I5?
Post 166:Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "20.8 A Touch of Magic
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
This book has an interesting premise—a young woman makes a deal with a dark god for her fre..."
+5 Prize-worthy
Post 167:Connie wrote: "20.5 Elizabeth's Comfort Zone
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Catherine Morland is the seventeen-year-old protagonist in this delightful coming-of-age novel. She comes ..."
+5 Combo - 10.10 (Emma is a Group Read, same author)
10.3 1925 MoviesGeorge Sand: True Genius, True Woman by Séverine Vidal
Biography of french author George Sand, apart from a few pages in Italy, it's all set in France.
+10 Task
No style points, graphic novel
Task total = 10
Points total = 140
15.5 Sweet Sixteen BingoSquare O4- no E in title or author name
Last Contract by Clark Howard
+15 task
+5 old (1973)
+50 first bingo
Post total=70
Season total=255
20.10 Fall VacationWhat You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
The only word I can think of for this book is “sweet”. People who are at loose ends in their lives and have no self-esteem find their way to the local library. The reference librarian hands out book recommendations and felt pieces. The ideas from the books and family, friends, and acquaintances help the people turn a corner and see life from a different angle and things look better. There is too much expressed self-examination for my taste.
+20 set in Japan and a Japanese author
+10 female
+5 combo 20.6
+5 combo 20.8 MPG magical realism
+5 combo 10.4 AM
+5 combo 10.8 library
+10 review
Task total: 60
Season total: 155
20.9 Olivia LiangHot Milk by Deborah Levy
+20 task
+10 Combo (10.4, 10.9 I am missing brown bread and Cheddar cheese)
+10 female
Task total = 40
Season Total = 310
10.10 Group ReadsStone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
+10 Task
+10 Female
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 70
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Playground (other topics)Snapdragon (other topics)
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Hee mooie ziel (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Richard Powers (other topics)Kat Leyh (other topics)
Sterre Carron (other topics)
Tom Hofland (other topics)
Fleur Overgaag (other topics)
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Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
"Surfacing" is an introspective novel where an unreliable narrator is trying to resolve some traumas from her past. The novel starts with the unnamed narrator, her boyfriend Joe, and a married couple--Anna and David--traveling to a lake in northern Quebec. The narrator is searching for her father who has disappeared from his home on an island.
The island brings back memories of her childhood. She also has disturbing memories of a previous relationship and a baby. Both of the couples are having difficult times while they are staying on the island, especially Anna and David. David is a womanizer who enjoys intimidating Anna. She is so anxious to please him that she won't be in his presence without makeup.
Themes of Canadian national pride (with anti-American feelings), and the conservation of the Canadian wilderness run through the book. Published in 1972, themes of women having to deal with the social expectations of the time and misogyny are also present. The most important theme is one of a journey to finding her true identity.
The narrator is the illustrator of a fairytale anthology. The ending has a bit of a fairytale quality as she faces her repressed memories, her mental state deteriorates, and she goes through a transformation. This process of change could also be considered "surfacing" after a deep dive.
The book is realistic in some parts and dreamy in others. Margaret Atwood is also a poet, and the writing about the wilderness is lovely and lyrical. It's an unusual book, but one I enjoyed.
+20 task (author born in 1939)
+ 5 combo 10.4 Fall Birthdays (initials M, A)
+10 review
+10 female
Task total: 45
Season total: 225