Reading with Style discussion
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Spring 2012 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks
nsfancy wrote: "Task 10.10 The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler+10 Task
+10 Combo (20.5 pub 1953, 20.4 movie 1973)
Task total 20
Total points 365"
+5 Combo (10.5)
Silver wrote: "10.9 Karen's task - "Please Sir, I want some more"The Odyssey by Homer
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.6 - The Music of the Soul, 20.3 - In honor of Harvard Bookstore, In honor of Kid’s Republic)
+10 Not..."
+5 Combo (10.4)
10.6 - The Music of the SoulShakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare
+10 task
+10 canon
+10 not a novel
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 120
Rebekah wrote: "15.3 AtW Circumnavigator3rd stop, India E077.12 fits A,C
Darjeeling: A Novel by Bharti Kirchner
+15 pts - Task
+10 pts - bonus
Task total - 25 pts
Grand Total - 1115 pts
"
We have a small addition error here. 1085(previous total)+25=1110, not 1115
Also, in post 720, the post total should be 25, not 30.
Hope our totals match now! :)
Task 20.9 Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task - It's epidemicI picked a novel that has a main plot point the 1918 “Spanish” Flu.
The Last Town on Earth (2006) by Thomas Mullen
Review: The novel is set in a small mill town called Commonwealth, located in the Pacific Northwest of America. The town of Commonwealth was created by an idealistic man with some inherited money who decided to prove that workers could be treated decently and the mill would still turn a profit. 1918 arrives: the draft for soldiers for World War I is underway (a lot of Commonwealth are war objectors). There is tension between Commonwealth and neighboring towns. And then ….. the 1918 “Spanish” flu arrives, sickening and killing large groups of people. Commonwealth decides to quarantine itself for an indeterminate amount of time – let the flu burn itself out elsewhere. The novel focuses on the residents of Commonwealth, their reactions to the war, the flu, and the quarantine. Moral dilemmas are presented and different characters make different choices. The pace of the novel was slower than most novels but I liked it. Recommended for when you want to read a historical novel.
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 630 + 30 = 660
20.08 It's alphabeticAls die wunderbarste Frau der Welt sagte: "Wir sind schwanger!": Neun ganz besondere Monate im Leben eines Mannes by Gernot Gricksch
[When the most wonderful woman of the world said: "We are pregnant!"]
Review:
A really wonderful book, and a must-read for soon-to-be-fathers (and -mothers). Though it is generally entertaining and even years in advance good to have read. It contains useful (and funny, sometimes a bit disturbing) facts about pregnancy and birth and all the things parents should (or might) think about. Overall it nurtures the feeling that something really great and awesome is about to happen, despite the not all too nice and cozy happenings (e.g. morning sickness).
+ 20 task (Als die wunderbarste Frau...)
+ 10 review
+ 10 not-a-novel (non-fiction: part biography, part guide book, part experience report, part humor)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 200
20.4 El AteneoMidnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt
Not at all sure why this was a best seller. Yes, it was an easy read, but there was no point. It started off with a number of characterizations, none of whom seemed to have any ties to the others except they were all in Savannah, Georgia, at the same time.
Then there is the murder, which is what I thought the book was going to be about. I think the author should have restricted himself to this event, fleshed it out into a full book. The other stuff was entirely extraneous and not particularly interesting.
Every town has its odd people. It isn't at all clear why the author thought Savannah's odd people were worthy of a book. I mean, let's face it, he is from New York. How odd can these people be?
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 40
Grand Total = 625
10.8 Family Affair The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Review: This is a warm, positive book about a family of young women who find a way to survive and, even, thrive, and help their neighbors during the Taliban rule of Kabul. The family is a mother and father, two brothers and five sisters (one married and a mother). The younger sisters are attending school with ambitions to higher education and careers when the Taliban arrive. The father is retired military and feels that his presence is a danger to the family and so goes to his home town which is in the area controlled by the Northern Alliance. The oldest brother also leaves the country for safety reasons leaving the girls and youngest brother at home in Kabul.
I really appreciated the daily detail that often gets left out of news stories. What it was like to go from freely moving about the city with a scarf to having to find burqas, having girls excluded from schools, having to only leave the house with a brother in attendance and having to watch over your shoulder when conversing with a male shop owner.
I felt that the author, who is a business journalist and has an MBA, sort of glossed over the economic questions, for instance, who were buying all the women's clothes that the women were making in a city facing starvation, how were their supplies getting into the country, etc.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
Task total: 30
Previous total: 715
Grand Total: 745
20.9 It's EpidemicThe Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
I had forgotten just how much I loved the stories in this book. The Decameron is in many ways a partner to The Canterbury Tales as it is full of Medieval stories as told by a group of characters to each other. In The Decameron a group of ten people, seven women and three men, attempt to while away the time as they isolate themselves from Florence during a plague outbreak. Everyone tells a tale each day, centered around a certain theme chosen by each of their party in turn, over the course of ten days so that there are a total of a hundred stories told throughout the book. I absolutely loved the mix of bawdy humor along with some more gentile language and the triumph of the trickster archetype in these stories. Women are shown equal to men in their lustiness and their brilliance of planning. I am really glad I re-read The Decameron as it refreshed my love for this book (along with other Medieval stories). So much fun and I highly recommend it to people!
+20 Task
+15 Combo (20.1, 20.4, 20.7)
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
+10 Canon
+25 Jumbo (caught by Kate S.)
Task Total:
Grand Total:
AtW - Circumnavigator15.7 (W 006 15) Ireland
The Talk Of The Town by Ardal O'Hanlon
+15 task
+10 bonus
Grand Total: 585 points
15 AtW Circumnavigtor+100 bonus for finishing AtW
Task Total: 100
10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy - Dexter in the Dark #3 by Jeff Lindsay
Dexter in the Dark
+10 task
Task Total: 10
10.8 "It's a Family Affair - Bootlegger's Daughter (A Deborah Knott Mystery #1) by Margaret Maron"
Bootlegger's Daughter
+10 task
Task total: 10
10.9 "Please Sir, I want some more" - Fire and Ice (Joanna Brady # ) by JA Jance
Fire And Ice
+10 task
Task Total: 10
10.9 "Please Sir, I want some more" - The 5th Horseman by James Patterson
The 5th Horseman
+10 task
Total task: 10
10.9 "Please Sir, I want some more" - Cause of Death #7 by Patricia Cornwell
Cause of Death
+10 task
Task total: 10
20.4 In honor of El Ateneo bookstore - House of the Rising Sun by Chuck Huatmyre
House of the Rising Sun
+20 task
Task total: 20
Points this post: 170
Grand Total: 410
Norma wrote: "15 AtW Circumnavigtor+100 bonus for finishing AtW
Task Total: 100
10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy - Dexter in the Dark #3 by Jeff Lindsay
Dexter in the Dark
+10 task
Task Total: 10
10.8 "It's a F..."
Norma, you might not have these tasks numbered the way you intended them. Do you want to review?
ETA: Sorry, I was confused. (happens too often)
20.2 In Honor of True ColorsWide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Review:
Jean Rhys, who was born and raised in the West Indies, wrote this book to tell the story of the first wife of Jane Eyre's Rochester, called Bertha by Charlotte Bronte but here given the name Antoinette. Her husband, unnamed in this book but clearly Rochester, calls her Bertha because Antoinette was also the name of her mother who became mentally ill after the death of her son. That change of name immediately makes us question the Jane Eyre version of events so that we are able to accept that there might be a different way of seeing things.
For me this is a wonderful book. Having just watched a movie set in Jamaica I loved all the description. The buildup to the tragedy is very well done and Rochester becomes a more complex character than he is in Jane Eyre, not exactly a villain because they are both betrayed by others, but unyielding.
+20 Task (on 100 Great 20th-Century list)
+ 5 Combo (20.4 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108565/ )
+10 Review
Task total = 35
Grand total = 1830
20.3 Harvard BookstoreThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
This is ostensibly the story of Oscar, a fat, gentle, sci-fi-loving, fiction-writing, woman-admiring(-but-never-getting) Dominican boy. Interwoven with his story, we get the stories of his sister, Lola; of his mother and her deceased family; of the woman who raised her, La Inca; and the story of the Dominican Republic itself. I am embarrassed to say that I had no idea about Trujillo and his terrifying despotic reign, about the "Platano Curtain", about the genocide he committed against his own people and even more so, the Haitians. I used to work the flights to the D.R. quite often and would get annoyed at the chaos that accompanied every single one I'd ever worked...now it makes a whole lot more sense.
Reading this book, I wished two things: I wished my Spanish was better (there was a whole lot peppered in there) and I wished I could listen to this one read aloud...the lilt of the language, the way it was told, was conversational-bordering-on-hip-hop. It was so...alive.
+20 Task (62 on the Harvard top 100)
+10 Review
+10 Combo
-10.7 (2008 Pulitzer Prize winner)
-20.10 (creative writing professor at MIT)
Task Total = 40
Found Points = 20 (messages 786 and 787, thank you again, Kate...one of these days I'll get better about finding all my points!)
Grand Total = 1025
20.5 Shakespeare and CoA Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
+20 Task (originally published in 1953)
+5 Combo (20.2 on 20th century list)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 35 points
20.8 It’s Alphabetic
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
+20 Task (stumbling)
+5 Combo (Gilbert is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 35 points
Grand Total = 390 points
Task 10.4 - It's Your BirthdayThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
+10 Task
+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish
Total this post: 310 pts
Grand Total: 1,580 pts
In Post 557 Carolyn wrote: "20.4 - El Ateneo BookstoreThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Made into a movie in 2009, then again in 2011
This was an unusual read for me; I almost always prefer to read the book..."
+5 Combo for 10.05 Rooting for the Bad Guy
Total Score = 370
In Post 644 Kelli wrote: "20.5 Shakespeare and Co.A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
This was a wonderful story full of historical adventure set during and after World War II that stretched ov..."
+5 Combo for 10.03 Girl's Name
Total Score = 430
AtW Circumnavigtor15.8 (W 074 04) Columbia
No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories by Gabriel García Márquez
+15 task
+10 bonus
Grand Total: 610 points
Tien (aka Kazza) wrote: "Sorry for the bulk posting... I've only just got my reviews done :) Now, I'm up to date, yay!! Oh, errr... I've also changed my nick though I still put Kazza there for now ;)Task 10.7 Reading i..."
The Long Goodbye qualifies for 10.5 also.
+5 Combo
20.8 It's AlphabeticI Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Review:
A very funny and frank memoir, an account of the relationship between a virtually alcoholic New York drag queen/advertising executive and his rich crack-smoking 'escort' boyfriend. It's very sweet in their happy moments but with the level of substance abuse that is going on, there is always a feeling of doom hanging over their heads. Plus it opens with a flash-forward prologue where Josh wakes up to find Jack standing over him with a massive knife in his hand, so you do have an inkling that trouble may be in store.
Content warning: there's a lot of alcohol and drug abuse and Jack's clients have some bizarre sexual practices.
+20 Task ('I am not myself...')
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task total = 40
Grand total = 1870
Don wrote: "TASK 20.6 Selexyz Fix Your Eyes on Jesus by Anne Ortlund
I have been using this book as a guide to a series of online devotionals I have been sharing. The book is divided into 46 chaptes that fo..."
There is a small addition error here. In post 771, your total was 840+40 (from this post) = 880.
Jenifer wrote: "10.6 - The Music of the SoulShakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare
+10 task
+10 canon
+10 not a novel
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 120"
+5 Combo (10.4)
+5 Jumbo (over 500 pages)
Christin wrote: "20.9 It's EpidemicThe Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
I had forgotten just how much I loved the stories in this book. The Decameron is in many ways a partner to The Canterbury Tales as it is ful..."
+25 Jumbo (1072 pages)
20.3 Harvard Top-SellerCloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Review: Six stories intertwine, weaving around each other in delicate ways, before reaching a finale furioso. The first story is the diary of a notarist traveling back from Australia to America in the mid-19th century, the second is told in letters from a early 20th century composer, the third is a pulp fiction novel from the 1970s(?), the fourth is a novel written by a publisher in our time, roughly, the fifth is an interview conducted with a clone in the future and the sixth is a oral history in the distant future, and they are split in half and wrapped like matroshka dolls around each other, though in each you'll find not so subtly hints about its predecessors, and together they reverberate with the noise of domination and power through the times.
Mitchell proves to be a master of voices, each of which is believable and touching.
When I started, I knew about the structure, not much about the stories, and was a bit sceptical whether he would manage to pull me in six times, and not loose me with this stop and go approach, but I was pleasantly surprised, and even more surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Task: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 5 (20.4 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/ - I trust you'll let me know if that doesn't count?)
Jumbo: 5
Task total: 40
Grand total: 915
Thanks, Christin & Rosemary :)& thanks, Kate for the additional points :)
Amy W wrote: "20.5 Shakespeare and CoA Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
+20 Task (originally published in 1953)
+5 Combo (20.2 on 20th century list)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total =..."
+5 Combo 20.8 Other Stories
Tien (aka Kazza) wrote: "Task 10.4 - It's Your BirthdayThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
+10 Task
+100 RwS Finish
+200 Mega Finish
Total this post: 310 pts
Grand Total: 1,580 pts"
Congrats!
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.4)
+10 Not-A-Novel (Short Stories)
Don wrote: "Kate S wrote: "Don wrote: "TASK 20.6 Selexyz Fix Your Eyes on Jesus by Anne Ortlund
I have been using this book as a guide to a series of online devotionals I have been sharing. The book is divi..."
Nope, I was wrong, there was no error there. Our totals match again. Thanks!
Kate S wrote: "Tien (aka Kazza) wrote: "Congrats!+10 Combo (20.1, 20.4)
+10 Not-A-Novel (Short Stories) "
Thanks, Kate. You're a legend ;D
Wasn't sure about the 'movie' task & since it's fiction, wasn't sure either about the 'not-a-novel' style points. Thanks heaps!
Congratulations, Kazza! Fantastic job on your mega finish!
Kate S wrote: "Christin wrote: "20.9 It's EpidemicThe Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
I had forgotten just how much I loved the stories in this book. The Decameron is in many ways a partner to The Canterbury T..."
Ooh, thanks Kate! Somehow I blanked on claiming that point (I'm going to claim that it's because the book was good enough to not seem that long lol ^_~). I edited my original post (and made sure to note that it was edited there)
Karen GHHS wrote: "Congratulations, Kazza! Fantastic job on your mega finish!"Thanks, Karen. It's been a tough one this season :)
Connie wrote: "20.3 Harvard Top-SellerCloud Atlas by David Mitchell..."
No combo points for 20.4, as the movie will not be released before the end of the challenge.
Ceraphina wrote: "10.4 It's Your BirthdayThe Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
When I was a child my dad read this to me as a bed time story. Reading this book brought back some great memories, but it also made me realize..."
+5 combo 20.01 (see Don's post 773)
Rosemary wrote: "20.8 It's AlphabeticThe Closed Door and Other Stories by Dorothy Whipple
Review:
I did enjoy these stories but not as much as I had expected. I found that the first one (which is very long) rath..."
I can't find where we told you this is also
+10 Not a Novel
10.8 It's a Family Affair Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich
+10 Task
Task Total = 10
20.10 It's Academic (repeat)
International Political Economy, Fifth Edition by Thomas Oatley
Thomas Oatley is an Associate Professor of Political Science at UNC Chapel Hill. ( http://www.unc.edu/~toatley/ )
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (nonfiction)
Task Total: 30
Points this Post: 40
Total Points: 520
20.8 It's AlphabeticI'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti
I have no idea why this is on the 1001 books list. The description here at Goodreads says it is a coming of age story. If it is, then I don't know the definition of the term. The narrator is 9 years old, does not get older in the story, and though he gains understanding about the circumstances in the novel, does not seem to gain understanding about life in general.
I found nothing particularly scary about the book. In the first few pages the narrator tells us something that happens to him 10 years in the future. He also reflects on what his town was like at the time of the story as if it is in the past. Armed with this knowledge, the reader should know he survives the novel's circumstances, and there is no reason to be afraid for him. And, of course, it's a first person narrative. I think I heard there were a couple of first person novels where the person dies, but I had no reason to expect this to be one of them.
The prose is too simple for my tastes. Yes, the narrator is 9 years old. The sentence structure is appropriate for that age, but there were bits of vocabulary that didn't fit a 9 year old. So, from me, the author gets marked down on the writing itself.
+20 Task (mno in I'm not)
+ 5 combo (20.4)
+10 Review
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 660
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rosemary wrote: "20.8 It's AlphabeticThe Closed Door and Other Stories by Dorothy Whipple"
I can't find where we told you this is also
+10 Not a Novel
Yes somebody did tell me and I added the 10 to my spreadsheet so I think my totals on my most recent posts should be correct, but please let me know if not
20.10 It's AcademicThis Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman
This is the story of the Bergamot family and how one seemingly harmless keystroke changed each of their lives. It is told from the point of view of Liz (mom), Richard (dad), and Jake (15-year-old son).
Action starts on a weekend when Richard is working late, Liz and Coco (their adopted 5-year-old daughter) are at a mommy/daughter slumber party, and Jake ends up at a party. Thirteen-year-old Daisy, in whose apartment the party is taking place, had a crush on Jake and tries to get him to make out with her. He declines, saying she's too young. Flash forward: Daisy sends Jake a sexually explicit video of herself. Jake doesn't know how to react, ends up sending it to his best friends...who send/post it everywhere. It ends up making the news, The Post, Page Six, YouTube. That one remarkable misjudgment is a bomb dropped right in the middle of this family, shooting them all out in different directions--but, certainly, away from each other.
+20 Task (associate professor at The New School, NY)
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
RwS Finish = 100
Mega Finish = 200
Grand Total = 1355
Here's a free review since there was no Pulitzer awarded and it doesn't count elsewhere!Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
I loved every second of this brief book and the only reason I can think of that it didn't win the Pulitzer, although I'm not an expert, is that it was considered more a novella than a novel. Of course it had me from the beginning when the Moyie Bridge that we drive over every summer on our way to Montana was the place from which they were trying to do in one of the Chinese railroad workers. I also got to go to Bonner's Ferry where my husband was born and up the Yaak River Road to Silvanite which is about half way to the cabin we stay in every August. On top of all that, the writing was just exquisite from the first to last page.
Beautiful Country!
Here are some photo links:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6136/59...
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3188/30...
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6202/60...
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1359/14...
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Norma wrote: "15 AtW Circumnavigtor+100 bonus for finishing AtW
Task Total: 100
10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy - Dexter in the Dark #3 by Jeff Lindsay
Dexter in the Dark
+10 task
Task Total: 10
..."
Elizabeth - unless I'm missing something, the tasks are numbered correctly.
Yes, Norma, I confused myself with your AtW posting.
RwS Tasks20.4 El Ateneo
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.2)
20.5 Shakespeare and Company
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
+20 Task (pub 1927)
+10 Canon
+20 Combo (10.4, 20.3, 20.4-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086452/, 20.7)
Post Total: 75
Season Total: 1685
AtW-Circumnavigator15.7- (W 077 01) Peru
The Feast Of The Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
15.8 (W 061 31) Trinidad and Tobago
Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 1735
20.2 True ColorsI Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn
This book really surprised me. When I first picked it up I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it much but I resolved to read it to fulfill this task. Once I got into it though I really liked how the author used repetition and different styles of narration to make the simple text very interesting. Before reading this book, I knew nothing about Amelia Earhart, but this version of her story (which is mostly conjecture considering no one knows what exactly happened on her plane as she flew around the globe), really made me want to read a biography or two about her. Over all this is a nice little read. I wouldn’t call it life changing but it was enjoyable enough that I would recommend it to anyone interested in the story of a brave (and maybe a little crazy) woman who took on the world.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 Girl's Name)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
+5 Points found by Kate S Post 745
+5 Points found by Elizabeth (Alaska) Post 830
Grand Total: 665
20.7 Kid's RepublicOthello by William Shakespeare
This is only the second time I have read this classic. The last time I read it I was in 11th grade and I was only 16 years old. The first time I read it I don't think I really understood all of the nuances, and I certainly didn't understand all of the dirty jokes. This is the story of Othello and Desdemona, newly-weds who just want to start their life together. Unfortunately Iago won't let them because Othello had passed him over for a promotion. In my opinion this is one of the most tragic of Shakespeare's tragedies as there is really not much cause for what takes place. Iago really takes revenge to the next level. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys Shakespeare.
+20 Task
+20 (10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy, #6 Best Antiheroes in Books; 10.6 Music of the Soul; 20.1 Tattered Cover http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/m... 20.4 El Ateneo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114057/)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Canon
Task Total: 70
Grand Total:735
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Hard Times: For These Times (other topics)The Age of Grief (other topics)
The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd (other topics)
BoneMan's Daughters (other topics)
Marie-Blanche (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)Jane Smiley (other topics)
Mary Rose O'Reilley (other topics)
Ted Dekker (other topics)
Jim Fergus (other topics)
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10.6 – The Music of the Soul
A Book in Verse:
A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes no lexile available
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
20.7 In honor of Kid’s Republic
Pippi Longstocking by A..."
+5 Combo for Pippi Longstocking (20.1)