Reading with Style discussion
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Spring 2012 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks
10.8 Family AffairJesus' Son by Denis Johnson
The reader for the audiobook version of this book is a perfect match for the narrator of these loosely connected short stories. The stories are told from the perspective of an ordinary screwed up alcoholic drug user who is just going about his life. He is optimistic about humanity despite the lousy condition of his own life in many of the stories. Denis Johnson is masterful at writing these unvarnished gritty tales and turning a good phrase while doing it. I didn't like this collection quite as much as I liked Angels, Johnson's first novel, but they were still excellent. I see that a movie was made from these stories, so I think I'll add that to my netflix queue.
+10 task
+5 combo (20.4)
+10 not a novel
+10 review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 210
20.8 It's Alphabetical
by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Total: 20
Grand Total: 120
10.8 It's a Family AffairSister: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
My sister lent me this book--a library book, no less (i.e.: there's a set deadline by which it must be completed). I already have a book read and submitted for 10.8 and I was loathe to read two books for the same category when I still have so many categories that need to be filled. AND I'm not a huge fan of mysteries. AND I hate bringing library books with me on the plane (I don't want to risk hitting turbulence and having coffee destroy a hardback that I'd have to replace...yes, it has happened to me. More than once.)
But I did it (who am I to tell my sister no?) and I was floored. This is a letter from Beatrice to her sister, Tess, explaining the circumstances surrounding Tess's death.
And that's really all I can say--I fear I'll give something away and this book is best read cold: no reading of the jacket or front book leaf, no spoiler blurbs in magazines, no ravings from fans (me).
I loved the characters. I loved her prose. I really, really loved the way the author crafted a warped time-line that was confusing enough to keep the reader on her toes yet clear enough to drop a hint or two if said reader is paying close attention.
Read it. You won't regret it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
20.8 It's Alphabetic
Why Is God Laughing?: The Path to Joy and Spiritual Optimism by Deepak Chopra
So...I chose this book for a bevy of bad reasons: I stuck "laughing" (because I thought I could do with a funny book and "laughing" was my favorite word I could come up with that had "GHI" in it) into the search window at my local library and this was towards the top of the long, long list of possibilities; choosing this book would give me 5 bonus points; I've never read anything by Deepak Chopra and people seem to love him (well, Oprah seems to love him and people seem to love all things Oprah); the forward was written my Mike Meyers and there were blurbs on the back from Dan Aykroyd and John Cleese; and, finally, I had four minutes to pick a book and check it out before the library closed.
Hmm. The first 149 pages tells the story of a comedian who meets a guru of sorts who challenges every aspect of the comedian's existence. It was a fable. Horribly written. There were "jokes" throughout that were honestly painful to read. I know it was just a story trying to illustrate abstract and challenging concepts, but the attempts at "funny" and "fiction" were far too distracting.
The last 40 pages of the book was the spiritual breakdown of the points covered in the story. THOSE I found interesting and insightful--the Deepak that most people know and love finally emerging. I don't know if I can bring myself to read another Chopra book, but I think I will try to be more forgiving with myself and others, remember to be grateful, and try to let anger and fear roll off my back a little more readily. Oh! And I really did enjoy the forward by Mike Meyers.
+20 Task (Why Is God LauGHIng?)
+10 Review
+5 Combo
-20.6 Selexyz Bookstore (Dewey decimal 204.4 C5495w 2008)
Task Total = 35
-5 as per post 171 (bummer.)
Grand Total = 205
Task 15.4 (4th Itinerary Stop) China (E 116 23)Red Sorghum:A Novel of China by Mo Yan
My review
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 points
Grand Total = 230 points
10.6 The Music of the SoulParadise Lost by John Milton
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.5 - #48 of Best Antiheroes in books list)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Canon
Task Total = 35 points
Grand Total = 265 points
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.1 (2nd Itinerary Stop) Mexico (W 099 08)
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
+15 Task
+10 Bonus Points
Task Total = 25
Grand Total: 100
Anika wrote: "10.8 It's a Family AffairSister: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
...Read it. You won't regret it."
Well! I am intrigued. Just placed a library hold!
RwS20.1 The Tattered Cover - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (http://bannedbooksweek.org/about)
This is the first time I’ve ever re-read a book for a task in this group but I thought with the movie coming out this week (opening today in fact, I have tickets for Saturday), I thought it was a good time to re-read this one. Much of this review will be about the first time I read it and the struggles I’ve had with this book. Really, I’m not sure how much more can be said about it anyways.
When I first read this, I was floored! I was stupefied and aghast at the story and plot…but I also couldn’t put the book down! I read it in less than 24 hours and this second time wasn’t much different. It was just as good the second time around, and some of my initial reactions to the book had subsided. It is really enjoyable. Which is a good segue into my now 11 year old daughter asking to read the book when I originally did. Um, NO! It was no flat out. But now, the movie’s coming out, her friends are reading it, they’re reading it in school (really??) and I’m on a losing side here. I don’t feel it’s appropriate reading material at all for these 11 year olds and of course that’s who the stories are geared to and yet, not being 11, I bet they have a whole different perspective on the book than I do as a Mother. And the funny thing is, so many people are okay with the “violent” books but don’t let them read about sex. I’m torn inside and I struggle with it and I could go on and on but I won’t. But I did love this book.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.4 - uh, unless you've been living under a very large rock, you know this is opening tonight)
+10 Review (Lexile 810)
Task Total=35
Grand Total=115
Kazza wrote: "10.6 The Music of the SoulParadise Lost by John Milton
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.5 - #48 of Best Antiheroes in books list)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Canon
Task Total = 35 points
Grand Total = ..."
You can also claim combo points for 10.6 (Music of the soul) as the entire book is in verse ^_^
Tobey wrote: "RwS20.1 The Tattered Cover - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (http://bannedbooksweek.org/about)
This is the first time I’ve ever re-read a book for a task ..."
In defense of your opinion, these books were written as older YA material and I have them at the high school library. I know the movie coming out will pull in the younger teens and tweens, though, just as Twilight did. I think of it as similar to what age I would want a student, or my child, to read Lord of the Flies and parents still have that decision making power. It's hard, though, when peer pressure comes into play. Is it being taught at the middle school level where you are then?
20.10 It's AcademicMy Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Review:
I had trouble getting into this unusual murder story and didn't follow it very well for the first approx 50 pages until the young widow Shekure entered the narrative. Then I began to see how the different characters' stories hung together. It is not an easy book for somebody steeped in Western culture to read, but very interesting for the same reason.
There is a lot about different styles of art which I found hard to understand. It would have helped to have had some illustrations. Overall, I enjoyed it and I would be interested to read his other books as long as they are different! I wouldn't be very keen to read more in this style.
Liz M said in the General Questions thread that this book would qualify for 20.10.
"From wiki: Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing.
Therefore, he qualifies for 20.10."
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo 500+ (508 pages)
Task total = 35
Grand total = 305
10.1 Tattered Cover - Banned BooksWhat My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones - banned in Texas schools, scroll to page 5 http://www.aclutx.org/reports/bannedb...
Review
A delightful book written in verse brings female readers back to their adolescent years when fickle love feelings start to blossom, parental love hate relationships are the norm, and peer pressure is everything.
Sophia has many questions and thoughts that women can identify from their pasts and young adults can identify in the present. That this grown woman and mother of two can author a book which has such authentic resonance, is an accomplishment, showing she can easily go back into the skin of her high school self. The poetry style is also so typical of girls writing their thoughts in a journal. How many of us wrote angst ridden poems in a spiral notebook in our own youth? It’s an easy read and one I recommend for young adults as well as the older ones. I gave it 5 stars.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo(10.6 - written in verse, 10.8 - Mother in title)
+10 pts - Review
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 325 pts
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.8 It's Alphabetical by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Style: +10 Combo 10.3 Girl's Name, 20.9 It's Epidemic (Sweating Sickne..."
Jayme, You, my kids and I did a buddy read! Can you wait to read the next one? My kids are asking me to to go Amazon and buy it ASAP, it's not in our library. My adult daughter and I are really into the Beka Cooper series. I first got it because Beka is my nickname and I had never seen anyone spell it that way before. Have you read any of her other series?
Karen GHHS wrote: "Tobey wrote: "RwS20.1 The Tattered Cover - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (http://bannedbooksweek.org/about)
This is the first time I’ve ever re-read a book f..."
Rebekah, I'm in Winnipeg in Manitoba Canada and I don't think their teacher is teaching it per se but with the movie coming out, there's a lot of hype surrounding it so many of her classmates and her teacher are reading it. In the end, we let her read it (she loved it) as her Dad and I thought she was mature enough to handle it. I find it interesting that many of these "questionable" books that kids are reading, their parents have no idea what they are about but to each their own.
Rebekah wrote: "Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.8 It's Alphabetical by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Style: +10 Combo 10.3 Girl's Name..."
I have some other books by her. I do want to read the next one. I have a 4 in 1 combo so I have all the books for the series.
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.2 (2nd Itinerary Stop) UK (W 000 07)
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25
Grand Total: 330
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.8 It's Alphabetical by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Style: +10 Combo 10.3 ..."
Maybe I need to get the combo too so as each book is finished I don't have to hear, "When are you getting us the next one?" about 100 times a day! lol
20.6 Selexyz Bookstore - Relgious FigureThe Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell(book is from the pov of Father Emilio Santos, a Jesuit priest)
Review
I read Joanna’s review of this book and I must say I agree with her view on the book. I really can’t add much else. I was kind of surprised at how naïve and trusting the exploration party was. When they first arrive, they sleep out in the open. I wouldn’t do that going to a new country on earth much less another planet! The animals they assume to be benign until proven otherwise. They catch them with their hands for instance. They have brought only one weapon which is left behind when they go exploring. Once they learn the language, they accept everything that is said. When a group of them go with a member of another species that is more sophisticated, one of the priests notices that these creatures were capable of lying. Yet, they still just accepted everything including a very painful and permanently maiming procedure. In the end, only the narrator is alive and returns to Naples to be interrogated by the Jesuit officials. It is very emotionally and physically difficult for him to re-live the events. There is a deep message in the story. Like the missionaries first sent to the New World, even with the best of intentions and the most innocent of actions, there is a profound change to the ecosystem and culture that can easily upset the balance and cause complete disaster for the native inhabitants.
+20 pts - Task
+5 pts - Combo(10.2 travel to another planet)
+10 pts - Review
Task Total - 35 pts
Grand Total - 360 pts
20.5 In Honor of Shakespeare & CoLord of the Flies by William Golding
Lexile 770
Review:
Rereading this book after many years, I still think it's amazing. A group of boys aged approx 6-12 are marooned on a desert island after a plane crash. The book follows the gradual breakdown of order as they regress from civilised beings to savages carrying out ritual kills. I can completely see how it can happen as the boys, who are used to obeying authority, follow even when that authority is somebody not much older than themselves. There is a leadership struggle with reason on one side and crazed ritual on the other, but in the end it all comes down to personal power. It’s scarily realistic.
+20 Task (published 1954)
+15 Combo (10.4, 20.1 http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/fr... ,20.4 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057261/ )
+10 Review
Task total = 45
Grand total = 375
Rebekah & Jayme, Song of the Lioness is an all time favorite series of mine. Of course, I first read it a long time ago but I have re-read it so many times (going to the library & getting the whole set out) that a few years ago, I thought it was time to invest in the whole set :)I also love her other series: Circle of Magic & Circle Opens. I will be investing in these 2 series too ;)
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.8 It's Alphabetical by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Style: +10 Combo 10.3 Girl's Name, 20.9 It's Epidemic (Sweating Sickne..."
I'm new here so I may be confused, but doesn't a book need to have a lexile score of at least 700 to qualify for style points? I had been planning to use this book but it is only a 690 lexile score.
Yes, needs to be at least 700 lexile. I think Liz usually checks these things, but another set of eyes is always helpful. Thanks for pointing that out.
Ceraphina wrote: "Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.8 It's Alphabetical by Tamora PierceThe alphabetic word is First.
Task +20
Style: +10 Combo 10.3 Girl's Name..."
Yeah, I saw that so I will take off the 20 points.
AtW-Circumnavigator15.4 (4th Stop)
(E 116 23) People's Republic of China
Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
15.5 (5th Stop)
(E 149 07) Australia
Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 400
20.5 Shakespeare CompanyPublished in 1924
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
+20 Task
+5 Combo 20.4-2004
20.8 It's Alphabetic
Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson
+20 Task (Afghanistan)
+10 Not-a-Novel (non-fiction)
20.9 It's Epidemic
Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika by Tony Kushner
+20 Task (AIDS epidemic)
+10 Combo: 20.1 Tattered Cover (http://broadwayworld.com/board/readmessa...) / 20.4 El Ateneo (HBO 2003)
+10 Canon
+10 Not a Novel (play)
Post Total: 105
Season Total: 505
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Yes, needs to be at least 700 lexile. I think Liz usually checks these things, but another set of eyes is always helpful. Thanks for pointing that out."Thanks Ceraphina! I missed that this book was YA.
Rebekah, you'll also be down 20 points.
Liz M wrote: "Amy W wrote: "10.2 Space OutShip of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.6 – The Bishop and Father Veronica are main characters.)
+10 Review
Task Total ..."
Oh, is the religious figure supposed to be the main character - not just an important character? The bishop is the main "bad guy" and Father Veronica is crucial to the plot and to the narrator's personal development.
Don wrote: "Kate S wrote: "20.5 Shakespeare CompanyPublished in 1924
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
+20 Task
20.8 It's Alphabetic
[book:Stones Into Schools: Promot..."
Good catch! Thanks
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.3 (3rd Itinerary Stop) Nigeria (E 007 29)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25
Grand Total: 400
Task 20.1 Read a Banned Book.I read:
Lady Chatterleys Lover (1928) by D.H. Lawrence
http://www.law.siu.edu/lawlib/Banned%...
The United States declared the book to be obscene in 1929, and many copies were seized in the mail or at Customs.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Paper-...
Lawrence's novel, which tells the story of an adulterous love affair, used sexually explicit language that was banned in the United Kingdom.
Review: D.H. Lawrence, rather deliberately, wrote a novel that included the violation of many taboos of the time (1920’s) he was living in. He intersperses the taboo-busting action with paragraphs of rants on subjects near and dear to the author’s heart. The taboo-busting occurred in three arenas: (1) relationships between the aristocracy and their workers as “equals” instead of “betters and inferiors”; (2) presenting an out-of-wedlock sexual affair WITHOUT condemning those involved; and (3) postulating that enough people are willing to accept immoral pairings as long as appearances are maintained. The characters were cardboard cutouts. It seemed to me that the taboo-busting action was included to lure readers to this otherwise mediocre novel in order to gain an audience for the author’s rants. Recommended only for readers who wish to read novels that have been banned a lot. Go elsewhere for a good story.
+20 Task
+ 05 Style: 1. Combo (5 points) (also fits: 20.4 movie, 20.5 “1920s”)
+ 10 Style: 2. Review (10 points):
Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 = 40
Grand Total: 125 + 40 =165
20.1 Tattered Cover--read a banned bookI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/fr...
Review: This is Maya Angelou's amazingly told story of her childhood. She and her brother spend most of their childhood with their paternal grandmother in a small Alabama town under Jim Crow, living in a separate part of town, attending segregated schools. Their grandmother owns and runs the store in the black area (as well as owning some land). She is caring, smart (she figures a way to keep the family fed during the Depression while still helping her very poor customers), and deeply religious. Angelou's descriptions of events in Stamps, Alabama such as attending a tent revival meeting and witnessing her grandmother enduring harassment of "powhitetrash" children are very telling snap shots of the black southern experience. Maya and her brother join their mother in San Francisco just before Pearl Harbor. Again she paints a very clear picture the black migrant experience in the west, while giving us her own coming-of-age story.
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-novel
+10 Review
+15 Combo (20.2 100 Great 20th Century Novels by Women; 20.4 made for TV movie aired on CBS in 1979; 20.1 Angelou is the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University)
Task Total 55
Previous total 100
Grand Total: 155
10.1 Square PegLost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón
I liked the general premise of this book and the setting. What I didn't like was that there was a constant back and forth in time, for different characters, to different time periods. A civil war is chaotic; perhaps this is what the author was trying to convey. But sometimes the time regressions and back were in the same paragraph. It was very tiring reading and by about halfway I didn't really care much any more. I was perfectly happy reading the last page, not because I liked the ending which wasn't particularly good, but because I was finally finished. I've given up on books before, even when I've gotten as far as 150 or more pages. I can't say why I didn't give up on this one - perhaps I was in the middle of one of my stubborn streaks.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 110
Amy W wrote: "Oh, is the religious figure supposed to be the main character - not just an important character? ..."Yes please.
Liz M wrote: "Amy W wrote: "Oh, is the religious figure supposed to be the main character - not just an important character? ..."Yes please."
Okay... I'll edit my post.
Task 20.6 Read a Novel that has a religious figure as the main characterLiz M in the 20.6 Help thread said she’ll take Dune for this task.
Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert (Paperback, 40th Anniversary Edition, 528 pages)
Review: 5*, 6*, one of the best Science Fiction novels out there! I read this first in the 1970s, so this is a re-read, even though it has been *ahem* a few years in between readings. What I liked: (1) the characters weren’t all good or all bad, but a mixture; (2) the planet Arrakis (AKA “Dune”), a desert world, where water is very scarce – and how the scarcity of water impacted the customs and culture of the residents of the world; (3) the powerful behind-the-scenes women – who often, but not always, get their way; and, (4) decades before Game of Thrones, Frank Herbert was willing to kill off sympathetic characters, although he does it with less gusto than George R R Martin does. What was iffy: drug-taking is good (but then, this is a ‘60s novel). Recommended for anyone who likes science fiction.
Re: Task 10.2 - Space Out - Read a book that features space travel – novel begins with the Atreides family travelling through space from the planet Caladan to the planet Arrakis (AKA "Dune")
Re: Task 20.4 Read a Book that has been made into a movie See:
http://www.mymcpl.org/cfapps/botb/boo...
+ 10 Style: 1. Combo (5 points) (also fits 10.2, 20.4)
+ 10 Style: 2. Review (10 points):
+05 Style:5. Jumbo (5 to 25 points): -500 Pages: 5 Points
Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 05 = 45
Grand Total: 165 + 45 =210
Deedee wrote: "Task 20.6 Read a Novel that has a religious figure as the main characterLiz M in the 20.6 Help thread said she’ll take Dune for this task.
Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert (Pa..."
+5 Also fits 10.5-best anti-heroes in a novel
10.4 It's Your BirthdayAnimal Farm by George Orwell
Review:
This book and 1984, which Orwell wrote a few years later, are often taken as indictments of Communism, but in fact Orwell's target was not Communism but Stalinism. Orwell was a Socialist who had fought for the Trotskyite militia in the Spanish Civil War, who found themselves betrayed by those who should have been their comrades. Animal Farm is an allegory for Russia after the Revolution, and it is easy to identify Stalin, Trotsky and many of the events that turned Russian Communism into a regime of fear.
At the same time, it works really well as a story. Inspired by the egalitarian theories of a recently-deceased wise old pig, the animals of Manor Farm revolt against their human owner, drive him out and rename the place Animal Farm. They write a constitution in seven commandments (e.g. no animal must wear clothes, all animals are equal) which are slowly overturned as Napoleon the pig begins to dominate as leader and take on more and more characteristics of the human farmer. Well worth a re-read especially if you last read it, unwillingly, at school.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (20.1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_... ,20.4 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047834/ )
+10 Review
Task total = 30
Grand total = 430
Liz, I had my score was 360 and Readerboard says
20.9 It's EpidemicAngels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner
Review
This drama won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Going back to 1985, when AIDS was new, scary and supposedly only confined to gay men and dirty needle users, the story addresses these using two couples often in split scene. I found that confusing to read but would probably get up if I saw the actual play. Although most critics raved about it, there were some who thought only the topic was the prize winner; therefore the writing could be messy. I felt it also addressed the times. Reaganomics, “being in the closet”, and packing the Supreme Court, the threat of communism etc... There is also quite a bit of mysticism. There is “The Voice” usually proceeded by a falling feather and sounds of something coming through the ceiling although the character of the angel is never seen and doesn’t get much further in words than “Glory to……” Glory to what? Will Part 2 explain? There occur ghosts of the AIDS patient‘s ancestors who also died during epidemics, The Plague. This book leaves me with the feeling, ‘huh?’ I was surprised when I came to the last page and there was no more to tie up the story.
+20 pts - Task
+20 pts - Combo(10.7 Pulitzer 1993, 10.10-Group Reads,
20.1 banned, 20.4 - HOB miniseries)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Canon
Task Total - 70 pts
Grand Total -
Rebekah wrote: "Liz, I had my score was 360 and Readerboard says 350. Where did I screw up......again?"Rebekah, please see posts 241, 242, and 246.
In post 190, you claimed 20 style points (10 review and 10 combo)which were not included as Alanna: The First Adventure has a lexile score of 690. Thanks
Kate S wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Liz, I had my score was 360 and Readerboard says 350. Where did I screw up......again?"Rebekah, please see posts 241, 242, and 246.
In post 190, you claimed 20 style points (..."
Ok! I didn't even think to check out the Lexile score! Thanks
10.1 Square PegWhen She Woke by Hillary Jordan
I was honestly hooked in the first sentence, and it usually takes me between 30 and 60 pages to commit to a book, if not more. The prose is very in-the-moment, and if you like character-based fiction that is also very plot based, you will like this novel. Also, despite the religious content and obvious social criticism, it didn't feel bitter to me. That it is a re-telling of The Scarlet Letter only adds to its appeal. It definitely does not sound like 19th Century prose though. Rather it is set in the future in Texas. I recommend this book as a quick intense read.
+10 Task Square Peg
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 60
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.5 (5th stop) Brazil (W 047 54)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
+15 Task
+10 Bonus Points
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 380
Kate S wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Task 20.6 Read a Novel that has a religious figure as the main characterLiz M in the 20.6 Help thread said she’ll take Dune for this task.
Dune (1965) by [author:Fr...
+5 Also fits 10.5-best anti-heroes in a novel "
oh, cool! So now my total is:
210 + 05 = 215
20.8 It's AlphabeticInterfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing (Interstitial) by Theodora Goss
The cover describes Interstitial writing as "Work that falls in the interstices--between the cracks--of recognized commercial genres. Interstitial Art wanders across borders without stopping at Customs to declare its intent." I have enjoyed short fiction anthologies by both Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss prior to reading this book so I was excited to pick up "Interfictions" based on the description and the editors (along with some of the contributors like Catherynne Valente). I have to admit I wasn't as wowed as I would have liked. There were definitely some strong stories included that ran the gamut of genre from creepy ghost-story to philosophical fantasy. However the stories that weren't quite as good were almost unreadable to me. Those stories felt like they dragged down the entire collection and at times just felt half-hazard and incomplete. It even surprised me how many of the stories I had indeed enjoyed when I looked back over the Table of Contents because those poor stories had left such a bored, frustrated aftershock. If you ignore those few stories though, the rest of the collection is top-notch.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
Task Total: 40
20.1 Tattered Cover
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
I have always re-read the Deathbed edition of Leaves of Grass as that is the most complete of the various editions. However, for the point of this challenge I decided to read the original 1855 publication that was initially banned. There is definitely a big difference in not only size (the 1855 edition is tiny in comparison to the Deathbed edition) but also in content. The original 1855 edition does not include the identifiers of "The Song of Myself" or "I sing the body electric," for example, as those were added in later additions. Leaves of Grass is a beautiful celebration of life, love, physicality, and ultimately America as a whole. The 1855 edition explores more the life of the vagabond, as well as the Civil War, and slavery (which had not yet been abolished). Whitman also touches on the universality of belief versus individual religion. Overall, Whitman describes everything with a sensual beauty that was shocking at the time and is still rather overt for today.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.6, 20.3, 20.7)
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
+10 Canon
Task Total: 65
Grand Total: 485
10.1 Square PegAmerican Gods by Neil Gaiman
I listened to the tenth anniversary audiobook, the only corresponding paper edition I found here has 544 pages. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Review: The first audiobook I listened for a long time, and I can't say that I'm terribly into it. I found it hard to connect with the characters, and even harder to follow the story, but eventually, I got there, at least story-wise. I still don't like the characters very much, and it might be because they are all so detached, which isn't helped by the narration.
I found the parts where he retells/imagines the old stories quite mesmerizing, and that too left a sour taste for the actual action.
It seemed quite too drawn out, with bits and pieces that added nothing to either his personage or his idea, and in the end, I don't mind the hours spent on it, but I'm not sure I would want to listen to it again.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 160
20.9 It's EpidemicThe Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
This was a reread for me. The premise of the book is so intriguing: a story split between a city of the "living dead" who only remain in the city as long as someone on Earth holds that person in their memory and a wildlife researcher in the Antarctica who may be the only person on Earth who has not yet succumbed to a manmade virus. On my second reading, I did a better job of tracking all the myriad connections between the many living dead and the still-alive wildlife researcher - however tangential those connections might be. What did not happen, however, is a change in my ultimate opinion for the book. I was definitely satisfied but nothing more.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.10 It's Academic - Current Visiting Faculty, The University of Iowa)
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 135
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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)
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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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Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
Previous total: 75
New total: 100