Reading with Style discussion
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Spring 2012 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks
Kate S wrote: "Carolyn wrote:"10.3 - Girls' NamesAnnabel by Kathleen Winter
+10 Combo (20.2, nominee for the Orange Prize in 2011)"
Combo points are +5 per additional task for which a book qualifies. I ..."
Hi Kate,
Nope, you're right! I don't know what I was thinking except I apparently can't count. ;)
Kristin Lavransdatter, Part 3: The Cross by Sigrid Undset
+20 task (banned in Hitler's Germany)
+15 combo (20.5 - published in 1922, 20.4 - made into a movie, 10.3 - Girls name)
+10 Review
+10 Canon
Task total: 55..."
+5 points for 10.9 - "Please Sir, I want some more", KL parts 1 & 2 read for the Winter Challenge.
Thanks!
Nevermind, I forgot me own rules :-S
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.6 (6th Itinerary Stop) Australia (E 149 07)
Ashling The Obernewtyn Chronicles 3 by Isobelle Carmody
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 point
Grand Total = 390 points
20.9 It's EpidemicMoloka'i by Alan Brennert
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries leprosy, i.e. Hansen's Disease, was rampant in the island of Hawaii - supposedly the population had little resistance to the disease. In order to try and combat this the government created an outpost on the island of Moloka'i where anyone diagnosed with leprosy was shipped to for the remainder of their lives. This book is from the point of view of a young girl named Rachel as she contracts leprosy at the age of seven and lives out most of her life on the island of Moloka'i. At times sad, this book had me bouncing ahead through time so much it was difficult to get a good hold on any of the characters except for Rachel. It was obvious the author wanted to showcase a huge section of Hawaiian history - from the fall of the Hawaiian monarchy when Rachel is little to the creation of a cure for Hansen's disease when she was an elderly woman. A good book but one I felt would have benefitted from not skipping ahead in time like it did and just being double the size.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 780
10.8 It's a Family AffairThe Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen
I loved this book. I don't often read biographies but this one was spectacular. Starting with the birth of Daisy and Violet Hilton in 1902 who were conjoined twins, it follows their life as they are abandoned by their mother and adopted only to be exploited. Their unusual condition as Siamese twins provided a meal ticket for their guardians who exhibited them first in bars and ale houses, then in freak shows and circuses and finally on vaudeville stages. At the age of 21 they went to court to gain their independence, while they won their independence they all but bankrupted themselves by living extravagant lifestyles. As the years went on and war and technological change made their act undesirable, they struggled to adapt to the changing times. This story is both inspirational and tragic and is very thoroughly researched. I would recommend it to anyone who is fascinated by show biz in the early part of the twentieth century.
+10 Task (Twins)
+5 Combo (10.3 Girls' Names)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 335
10.9 "Please Sir, I want some more."Blood Follows: A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson
I really love Steven Erikson however I felt like this novella was probably thrown together too quickly. There were many typos and spelling errors and it was lacking the epic fantasy feel of his other works. The plot is basically a retelling of the story of Jack the Ripper, with a dash of Frankenstein for good measure. The characters for the most part were one dimensional as well as predictable. I kept waiting for a twist but there wasn't one. This could have been a much better book had the author put a little more time in. It could have definitely benefited by having 200 to 300 more pages to develop the characters and the plot. Overall I would only suggest this book to those who have read the rest of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series as it provides some interesting back story for a few of the characters, otherwise skip it.
+10 Task (Read Steven Erikson's Crippled God last quarter)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 355
10.8 It's A Family AffairWise Children by Angela Carter
Review:
Dora Chance and her twin sister Nora are the unacknowledged illegitimate twin daughters of a great Shakespearean actor. Singing and dancing their way through life on the stage and off, they live in a showbiz world full of exuberance and duality where nothing is what it seems - especially family. In this book it really is “a wise child that knows its own father”.
I thought of Angela Carter as a difficult writer but this is a very easy book to read. The story carries you along as if you are watching the acts of a circus – which in a sense you are. All of the main characters are performers in one way or another. Highly recommended!
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total = 20
20.4 In Honor of El Atenco
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Lexile 650: not eligible for style points
Review:
When a bag full of cash drops from the sky into Damian’s hideout, he is not surprised. His main interest is the lives of the saints, and he assumes the money has come from God for him to distribute to the poor. His brother Anthony, however, has other ideas. So the two boys try to spend thousands of pounds in the few remaining days before Britain switches to the euro. It proves to be harder than you might think.
This is a cute story about two boys aged around 10 and 11 years old who have lost their mother. Damian seems like he might have Asperger’s Syndrome and Anthony is fantastic at getting them both out of trouble. They and their Dad are very likeable characters. A great read for older kids.
+20 Task http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366777/
Task total = 20
Grand total = 610
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.1 (3rd Itinerary Stop) United States (W 077 02)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
+15 Task
+10 Bonus Points
Task Total = 25
Grand Total: 225
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.7 (7th Itinerary Stop) New Zealand (E 174 46)
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 point
Grand Total = 415 points
Kate S wrote: "Rebekah-I show your total as 470. 450(post 283)+20(post 304)Let me know if I missed something. Thanks"
You're right, Kate. i forgot to carry my correction of post #283 to my next post of #304.
Thanks for catching that!
10.8 Family AffairThe Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Review
This is a lovely story about sisters, as separate individuals and as part of a sibling triad. A Shakespearephile (if I may use such a word), father who is a professor of The Bard at a university in a small college town has named all his children after Shakespeare’s characters. Rosalind is the oldest, the proverbial bossy older sister that is the true caretaker of the family ever since childhood, Bianca, a.k.a. Bean is the middle child who flees to the Big Apple asap after graduation to live the high life in the city on the income of a secretary. Between designer clothes, society parties and seducing more men than she can name, she finds the only way she was able to keep up this style was to embezzle from her company and is subsequently fired. Cordelia or Cordy is the traditional baby sister that was always doted on by the rest of the family. She drops out of college to drift along as a late generation hippie, living in cars, hostels, tents, and includes free love and flowers, pot and laidback cool but now finds herself pregnant by a one night stand. She thinks it is him anyway. When their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the prodigal daughters return home to join Rosalind who has remained in their hometown and now moved in with her parents to care for them, whether they want it or not, leaving her fiancée to go alone for a year to England and resisting the plan of leaving the place she has always known in both physical surroundings and in her role of the family’s right hand. The relationships between the sisters to each other and to their parents are explored in depth. Each daughter has their own epiphanies and learns life lessons resulting in decisions they never dreamed of as they finally grow up.
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
Task total - 20 pts
Grand Total - 490 pts
RwS Tasks10.9 Karen’s task – “Please Sir, I want some more”
I read Ecstasiain the Winter Challenge, so I read the sequel:
Primavera by Francesca Lia Block: no lexile available
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
20.2 In honor of True Colors
2011 Orange Prize nominee:
Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
In a time before there was full understanding that a person could be unable to communicate, but might be educable and able to "talk" through other means, Grace Williams tells us her story of institutionalization and alienation from family and society. Her sometimes tragic story has magical moments of love and understanding that make the conditions of her life all that much more poignant. It's a story that encourages the reader to truly listen to the human being behind the mask whether a simple facade built on purpose by the wearer or one imposed by health conditions beyond his or her control. When Grace Williams Says it Loud you will cheer for her and when she is discounted and forgotten you will cry with her. A wonderful finalist for the Orange Prize, it is a book well worth reading!
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.3 Girl's Names
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 35
20.8 – Kate S’s task – It’s alphabetic
The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee
OtheR STories
I enjoyed these stories, but because they were written as contemporary stories in 1988, they did suffer a bit for me because they were dated. I enjoyed reading about America's "melting pot" at the time and all of the immigrant's stories, but occasionally the time period jumped out at me as incongruous with the contemporary feel of the stories making the characters feel a little less real than I wanted them to be. The writing was good and compensated for the disconnect most of the time. My favorite story was the last one in the collection which topped off the collection with a meaningful story about loss and recovery.
+20 Task
+10 Combo: NBCC 1988 / It’s Academic (She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. http://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/56)
+10 Review
Task Total: 40
Points this Post: 85
Grand Total: 765
Karen GHHS wrote: "The Middleman and Other Stories. . .Task Total 40"+10 Not-A-Novel (short stories)
Kate S wrote: "Karen GHHS wrote: "The Middleman and Other Stories. . .Task Total 40"+10 Not-A-Novel (short stories)"
Thanks, Kate -- I forgot and that was even one of the reasons I picked that one!
20.1 The Tattered CoverLolita by Vladimir Nabokov
I'm still reeling from this one...I have the same unsettled feeling I had upon completion of In Cold Blood: fascination at the workings of a mind of a madman and abject revulsion at what is actually occurring in the narrative. The writing was breathtaking--smart and interesting and so detailed--but, goodness, I still feel like I need a shower, need to scrub myself down with sandpaper to get clean of the awfulness of it. I've tried on several occasions to pick this one up and read it over the years and just couldn't do it. So I listened to it. It was unnerving hearing Jeremy Irons (the ultimate baddie) tell Humbert Humbert's story. I appreciated the literary brilliance of the work, but the story will leave me sad and haunted for years, I fear.
+20 Task http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
+10 Review
+10 Canon
+30 Combo
-10.3 Girl's Name
-10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy
-20.3 Harvard Bookstore (Bestsellers #7)
-20.4 El Ateneo (film adaptations in 1962 and 1997)
-20.5 Shakespeare and Co (pub. 1955)
-20.7 Kid's Republic
Task Total = 70
Grand Total = 355
10.2 Space TravelPacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Review
A scientific and historical romp through the NASA Space Program, this book begins with the early days of test piloting and finishes with the question “Would going to Mars be worth the expense and hassle?” The author seems to think so. Describing the race with the USSR for space dominance, she explains all the preparations the two countries went through to accomplish their ends. The chapters are engrossing. There are the interesting stories of the animals that were first sent up into space, dogs for the USSR and chimps for the USA. She discusses everything from the mundane of how to handle motion sickness in space to the nearly absurd, sex in space? Although the book started dragging for me a bit toward the end with details, the author is very thorough and has done her research well. She participated or observed as much as she was permitted concerning the various worldwide programs of research such as living in small enclosed spaces with other people, recycling urine through filters to be made into safe drinking water, simulating how weightlessness affects bone and other organs through total bedrest experiments. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes, exact transcripts of conversations between mission control and the astronauts, much of which the public in general little knew. Although most of the book explains the conundrums of space living and travel as well as the ethics in an entertaining way, she also does address the sobering fatal tragedies of missions gone wrong in a sensitive, yet informing manner. I can recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about space travel but doesn’t have the brains of a rocket scientist.
+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Not a Novel
Task Total - 30 pts
Grand Total - 520 pts
Task 20.3 In Honor of Harvard BookstoreCatch-22 by Joseph Heller
Not a fan. I didn't have much expectations to begin with even though it appears to be one of those everlasting literature. However, it still caught me by surprise. It reminded me a lot of M*A*S*H* (tv show) though it doesn't appeal to my sense of humour as much (or nearly at all). I have a feeling that some parts were meant to be funny but I just couldn't (laugh, that is). It also seems to be sadder.
I can't say that I sympathise much with Yossarian. I'm surprised each time a character supported / sided with him. At the end of the book, it appears that he's quite a popular character. I suppose he's a pretty good guy to have all these people around him. Even with the ridiculous oppositions Yossarian faced, I still can't care for him at all.
In summary, neither plot / humour / character appeals to me. Am feeling a bit let down :(
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.5 - #30 The Best Antiheroes list; 20.1 - banned; 20.4 - movie)
+10 Review
Task Total = 45 points
Grand Total = 460 points
Task 20.3 Harvard list The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
+20 task
+5 combo(10.7 NBCC 1997)
Task total 25
Total points 135
Task 20.7 Internationally acclaimed To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
+20 task
+20 combo (20.3 Harvard, 20.4 Movie, 20.5 pub 1927, 10.4 It's your birthday)
+10 canon
Task total 50
Total points 185
+20 task
+5 combo(10.7 NBCC 1997)
Task total 25
Total points 135
Task 20.7 Internationally acclaimed To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
+20 task
+20 combo (20.3 Harvard, 20.4 Movie, 20.5 pub 1927, 10.4 It's your birthday)
+10 canon
Task total 50
Total points 185
Task 20.10 It's academic Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
+20 task
+10 combo (10.3 girl's name, 10.7 Pulitzer 2009)
+10 not a novel
Task total 40
Total points 225
Task 10.3 Girl's name Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw
+10 task
+5 combo (10.4 It's your birthday)
+10 canon
+10 not a novel
Task total 35
Total points 260
+20 task
+10 combo (10.3 girl's name, 10.7 Pulitzer 2009)
+10 not a novel
Task total 40
Total points 225
Task 10.3 Girl's name Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw
+10 task
+5 combo (10.4 It's your birthday)
+10 canon
+10 not a novel
Task total 35
Total points 260
10.8 It’s a Family AffairThe Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son by Ian Brown
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.8 - understand)
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 25 points
Grand Total = 215 points
Task 20.10 It's AcademicThe True and Living God: How today's false gods rob us of real life by Kim Hawtrey
Note: author's name is linked to his profile at Hope College (he is an economic professor
It's pretty weird reading a Christianity book written by my former economic lecturer. All the same, I was curious as to what he has to say about Christianity. It seems that he wrote this book after discovering the same thing for himself. That is, this book encourages the reader to find God in the midst of very busy life. That it’s so very easy to lose focus on God with so many worldly things to distract us. But to remember, there is only ONE True & Living God. The gospel is the antidote to the backsliding believer, for as that well-known hymn puts it, when you turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, then the things of earth will grow strangely dim – in the light of his glory and grace.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.6 - DDC:261)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task Total = 45 points
Grand Total = 505 points
15.5 AtW CircumnavigatorAsia: India (E 077 12): The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Task: 15
Bonus: +10
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 275
10.3 Girls' NamesEmily Goes to Exeter by Marion Chesney
Review:
In this Regency rom-com, Miss Hannah Pym, housekeeper, is left an inheritance by her late employer and decides to do what she has always longed to do: she sets off on a stagecoach journey around England. Her first trip is to Exeter. On the way there is a snowstorm and the stagecoach travellers are stuck in an inn for several days. Hannah Pym becomes a travelling matchmaker for young Emily Freemantle as well as an older widow who is travelling with them.
A light and fluffy read but I enjoyed it. The author is better known as M.C. Beaton and this fits well with her cosy mysteries.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total = 20
Grand total = 630
10.8Sister: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
I read this based on a cryptic recommendation in this discussion. I was intrigued. I'm normally not one for mysteries (I'm a close reader, so I'm pretty good at figuring it out well before the writer wants me to), but this was different. It's a sadly beautiful story of grief and love, that also happens to be a little bit mystery, a little bit thriller.
I could not put this book down. I read well into the night, and when my little boy woke up with the sniffles and wanted a late-night cuddle, I was more than happy to sit with him and my book for another hour or two. I kept reading well after he fell asleep on my lap because I had to know how it all ended.
Extremely well executed, with characters you truly care for - this was an unexpected gem. I'm happy to see that the author has another book, and I'll be reading that ASAP.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 240
AtW-Frequent FlierTask 15.1 (1st Itinerary stop) USA (W077 02)
From the Deep Woods to Civilization by Charles Alexander (Ohiyesa) Eastman
+15 Task
Task Total = 15
Grand Total = 75
Anika wrote: "10.3 Girls' NamesOlive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Oh, Olive...how I was hoping you were going to be on the list of anti-he..."
+10 Not-a-Novel (short stories)
20.4 El AteneoLongitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel
This is a treasure of a book. It does a great job of telling the story of how the "longitude problem" was solved. Prior to the early 19th century sailors had no reliable way to determine their longitude which resulted in many ships becoming lost. This problem led to such bad losses for the British Navy that the British Parliament created a prize worth £20, 000 which would be equal to millions in modern currency. This prize led to a race to find the solution. Many scholars began devoting all their time to this. There were two methods that came to the fore, the lunar table method and the chronometer method. This book tells the story of how the winner of the prize, John Harrison developed the chronometer, a precise watch which could keep time even on the high seas. Though his chronometer clearly solved the problem Harrison had to fight for many years before he received the prize. I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in astronomy, navigation or clock-making, and especially for those who love an underdog.
+20 Task (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192263/)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 395
20.1 Tattered CoverThe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I have been waiting to read this book for almost a month, ever since my 17 year old sister told me she was super excited for the movie and she hoped that I would take her. I honestly probably would have never read this book if I wasn't planning on going to the movie (I can't see a movie based on a book without first reading the book, it just seems wrong somehow). Now that I have read this book I am not so sure that I understand why I have heard so many people say that this book changed their life. The plot was very simplistic and predictable and while I could not put it down I found the use of present tense to be distracting. I did however enjoy the dystopian aspects of the novel, though that seems to be the new fad in YA. I much preferred Veronica Roth's Divergent, but I will probably still read the others in the series.
+20 Task (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/fr...)
+5 Combo (20.4 El Ateneo)
+10 Review (810 Lexile)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 430
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.1 (4th Itinerary Stop) Chile (W 070 39)
The Postman by Antonio Skármeta
+15 Task
+10 Bonus Points
Task Total = 25
Grand Total: 250
20.3 Harvard BookstoreWhite Noise by Don DeLillo
A well-crafted book that enthralled me from the opening image. White Noise, as the title implies, is a meditation on the information overload in modern life. The small, rural, college-town setting is a faint background in which are placed rambling, chaotic, meaningless chattering conversation between Jack, his friend and fellow professor Murray, and his wife and children that happen amongst exaggerated tabloid-esque events, such as toxic chemical spills and secret drug trials. Most impressively, this theme of constant background noise is manifested as both a theme and a technique demonstrated by its unerringly accurate circular dialogue of misremembered facts and rambling free association as well as the accumulating strings of nouns, adverbs, and adjectives. In a way, I think the book falls a victim to it's success -- I feel overloaded, overwhelmed and am not sure what the the point is. A fascinating, if not fun, read.
+20 task points
+10 Review
+10 Canon
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 225 points
RwS Tasks10.7 Rebekah’s task – Reading is Awarding
2009 Pulitzer Prize
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. It is written as a series of linked stories, which I really enjoy, but may not be the perfect format for everyone. In these stories, the reader gets an incomplete picture of who Olive Kitteridge really is and is given just a glimpse into the stories and inner lives of the characters that revolve around her in the small town in Maine where she lives out her life. None of the narrators are fully reliable because we only get single points of view at any one time, yet an almost total picture of Olive still emerges by the end of the book. I enjoy reading Pulitzer Prize winners because of the journey into American lives they give and this one was no exception.
+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.3 Girls’ Names / 20.10 It’s Academic (teaches at the Master of Fine Arts program at Queens University of Charlotte)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 40
20.5 In honor of Shakespeare and Co
First published in 1950:
The 13 Clocks by James Thurber No Lexile Available
What a great story! The 13 Clocks is one of those ageless stories that I thoroughly enjoyed. Sophisticated, but childlike at the same time!
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Points this Post: 60
Grand Total: 835
20.8 It's alphabeticThe Stranger's Child by Allan Hollinghu rst
Review: This is such fun. It is a very English novel spanning three generations.
It took me a bit to figure out that at the beginning of each section the reader had to work at it to figure out where, when, who and what was going on. But Hollinghurst didn't leave me puzzling long enough to get frustrated.
The story begins just before WWI with a middle class family of young people preparing for an upper class visitor-a college friend of the second son. It continues with vignettes moving forward in time to see them and their descendants up to contemporary time. We also follow a dogged biographer trying to make sense of their memories and their writings.
I very much enjoyed it including the parts that the reader gets to fill in.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo 10.8 Child
Task total: 35
Previous Total: 230
Grand Total: 265
20.10 It's AcademicBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
(on Faculty at Yale)
Review: I first heard about this book when it came out. Chua received a lot of criticism for her child rearing style the Chinese way. It is quite harsh to "Westerners", but I think that being open minded to a few of the techniques could be helpful. As a teacher I see laziness in many students. They don't want to take the time to get through the hard times.. Reading is "boring", but on each I keep it coming at them they start to like it. Back to the book.
Forcing activities on your kids does not always work, but keeping on them is hard work. A lot of parents are afraid of their kids not liking them, so they give into them too often. This book also opens up to those outside of the know why Asian kids are so successful in scholastic and musical areas.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 It's a Family Affair)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 45
Previous Total: 20
Grand Total: 65
Tanya wrote: "This book also opens up to those outside of the know why Asian kids are so successful in scholastic and musical areas."An Asian friend of mine had a poster, picture of a scowling middle-aged Asian man saying "You 99%? Why not 100%?"
AtW-Circumnavigator15.8 Canada (W 075 41)
Unless by Carol Shields
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 690
10.1 Square Peg1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
+10 Task
+20 Jumbo (945 pages)
20.4 El Ateneo Bookstore
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
+20 Task
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 740
Kate S wrote: "10.1 Square Peg1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
+10 Task
+10 Jumbo (945 pages)"
You must be tired! 945 pages will get you 20 Jumbo points!
Kate S wrote: "I just updated that! Thanks."I can only catch the obvious. ;-) You and Liz find the really tough ones.
10.2 Space OutThe Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
I have to admit I had a hard time making myself commit to this book (which might have more to do with this week was my vacation than the book itself). I absolutely loved The Left Hand of Darkness but there is something so distancing and isolating about the way The Dispossessed is written. The tone is entirely different from The Left Hand of Darkness even though the two books take place in the same universe. While The Left Hand of Darkness was an intimate portrayal of a society without gender, The Dispossessed is an anarchistic and rational portrayal of types of utopia. What is utopia? To some it would be the life portrayed on Urras - a life rather similar in decadence to our Earth (called Terras in Le Guin's universe) - but to our central character Shevek it is rather the twin planet Anarres from which he originates. A relatively barren, desert planet with almost no plants or wildlife and a society which seems to be rather dry in comparison to Urras...and yet there is no system of money or superiority. Each chapter goes back and forth between Shevek's time spent on Urras and on Anarres, plodding forward in a scientifically speculative pattern toward a more cerebral ending.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
10.6 The Music of the Soul
Collected Poetry & Prose by Wallace Stevens (specifically pages 355-477)
I was first exposed to Wallace Stevens poems back when I was still in school and I remember how struck I was by the first poem I read of his, that intricate lacing of the language and imagery to create an extremely intelligent form.
In this collection I specifically read the books The Auroras of Autumn (1950), The Rock (1954), and Late Poems (1950-1954). There were quite a range of poems in these three books from longer style poems broken up into numbered stanzas, including some villanelles, to poems more brief in style and length. In reading Stevens work it is evident just how important sound and pattern were in the formation of his imagery. There is repetition of words and the use of onomatopoeia to enforce specific sensations.
One poem, Reply to Papini, is in response to an old letter of Pope Celestin VI to poets which states "Cease, then, from being the astute calligraphers of congealed daydreams, the hunters of cerebral phosphorescences." That last image of cerebral phosphorescences describes perfectly the overarching sensation in reading Stevens poetry. Weighty but dreamy all in one stroke, his work makes you think and imagine in philosophical as well as descriptive ways.
+10 Task
+
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
+10 Canon
Task Total:
Grand Total:
AtW - CircumnavigatorTask 15.8 (8th Itinerary Stop) United States (W 077 02)
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians 2) by Rick Riordan
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 point
Grand Total = 530 points
RwS20.1 The Tattered Cover - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I wasn’t originally planning to re-read this again so soon but with my recent enjoyment of The Hunger Games, I was hungry for more (okay, pun intended!). I think I enjoyed this a bit more the second time around. I’d forgotten a lot of the story, which was good, so some of it was surprising to me, almost like it was the first time reading it. I find Katniss to be a very interesting character. Her loyalty never wavers but sometimes her “character” is what gets her into trouble in the first place. A very enjoyable second book in the trilogy.
+20 Task (http://bannedbooksweek.org/about)
+10 Review (Lexile of 820)
Task Total=30
Grand Total=200
10.7 Reading Is AwardingMiddlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Review:
Cal has both male and female organs and is raised as a girl but at puberty, finds out that s/he is genetically male.
I loved this once it got into Cal's story. I found the first 200 pages, about the grandparents and parents, rather slow. But to be fair, that is because I am particularly interested in gender-related matters (partly because I once had a boyfriend with Klinefelter's syndrome, another form of intersexuality) and was impatient to get to that part. I don't suppose it would have won the Pulitzer without the immigration story which gives it a place in the lineage of the great American novel.
+10 Task (Pulitzer Fiction 2003)
+ 5 Combo (20.10 http://www.princeton.edu/arts/arts_at... )
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo 500+ (529 pages)
Task total = 30
Grand total = 660
Christin wrote: "10.6 The Music of the SoulCollected Poetry & Prose by Wallace Stevens (specifically pages 355-477). . .
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.3 - Aurora, 20.5)
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
+10 Canon"
The "Aurora" in this title does not refer to a female character, and therefore does not qualify for 10.3. Sorry.
I have your total at 845 through post 418.
Christin wrote: "10.6 The Music of the SoulCollected Poetry & Prose by Wallace Stevens (specifically pages 355-477)..."
Kate is a much nicer/more patient sore-keeper than I am. I hate dealing with poetry collections; the original publish date is difficult to determine as is whether the specific edition linked corresponds to the edition that may qualify for another task, etc.
I know we have been flexible about poetry & minimum page requirements in the past, but this is the first partial book I have seen posted. In the interests of simplifying matters for the score-keepers, as much as possible I would prefer to keep it to one book-one task.
Thanks Kate - I went back and edited it so that the changes are obvious (using strikethrough).I'll definitely try and do that Liz - this is the only book I've read partially and that's because the entire collection is very large as it's a complete collection of everything written by Wallace Stevens (so it's well over a 1000 pages). I tried to specifically choose his later work which was solely published in the 1950's as I was more familiar with his earlier poems. ^_^
20.8 It's Alphabetic - Defending Jacob>Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay
In the classic legal thriller tradition of John Grisham or Scott Turow, this book also proved to be an admirable companion to We Need to Talk About Kevin. Thrown in for good measure was some interesting science on behavioral genetics, specifically the gene encoding the neurotransmitter-metabolizing enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). If the defendant inherited the "murder gene, " could that be a plausible defense to murder? But wait - the defendant didn't do it so why even go there!? William Landay writes from his experience as a prosecutor and crafts a very enjoyable tale that is destined to be on the big screen. The ending was not what I expected but maybe that's a good thing since I thought I had the whole book worked out in my head at about the three-quarters point.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 280
20.5 In Honor of Shakespeare & CoOn The Beach by Nevil Shute - Pub. 1957
A Post Apocalyptic world set in the 50s – how funky is that?! We have got nuclear bombs being dropped all over the place and the world is dying slowly from nuclear radiation.
This book is mostly set in & around Melbourne, one of the most southern metropolitan city and therefore, due to wind direction, one of the last to die. The story opens on New Year’s Day with the expected TOD (Time of Death) being sometime in September. We follow a number of characters with their own way of coping with this certainty of a messy death within a few months.
It was amazingly easy to read, once you got used to the setting and all. Whilst nothing much is actually happening (there really is nothing they could do but wait for death), it was just so interesting how one seeks to continue on a normal day-to-day living and others wish to do what their heart desires most (like driving a Ferrari). The mechanisms each character employed to keep their sanity in a desperate situation were just absolutely fascinating.
I loved Peter Holmes – what an amazingly strong guy! He appears to be just a regular naval officer but that’s just it, he is sooo normal throughout in comparison to other characters. I would, however, like to hear more from Mary Holmes’ point of view – what is really going on in her head? I love the way this family related to each other.
Dwight Towers and Moira Davidson completely touched me. The way Dwight longed for his wife and children in America in his heart of hearts. Moira Davidson’s love for Dwight and understanding of who he really is completely threw me off.
This is a book where I questioned myself as to what would I do were I in this situation or in any of the character’s shoes. One thing is for sure, thank God the world has not come to this… yet…
For the Environmentalists out there:
”Maybe we’ve been too silly to deserve a world like this,” he [Dwight Towers] said.
The scientist said, “That’s absolutely and precisely right.”
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.4 - grade 9-12 & 20.4 - movie)
+10 Review
Task Total = 40 points
Grand Total = 570 points
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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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Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie
+10 Task
Task Total=10
Grand Total=130