Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
FA 2014 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2014
Between the Wars sample post:15.4 - BtW - Constant Traveler
Man's Fate by André Malraux, 1933
+15 task
+15 bonus points
Task total: 30
Grand Total 575
20.6 UnderratedThe Labrador Pact by Matt Haig
Review:
This is the story of Prince, an eager young Labrador who believes, as Labradors do, that it is his mission to keep his human family together to bring back the good old days when families and dogs led secure, happy lives. Unfortunately his mission is fraught with difficulties, as both of the parents seem to be falling for other people and the children have their own serious problems. What's more, it's a dog-eat-dog world and there's murder behind the bushes in the park.
Told entirely from the dog's point of view, quite successfully in my opinion, this is by turns funny, touching and sad.
+20 task (618 ratings)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 30 points
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerYouth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather, 1920
+15 task
Task total=15
Grand total=15
10.3 – Leif Erikson A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
+10 task (shelved 42x Norway)
+15 combo (10.7 Honored Author - Norwegian Ibsen Award, 20.1 19th Century- shelved 81 times, 20.4 Realism)
+10 not-a-novel (play)
+10 oldies (1879)
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 45
20.6 UnderratedNaked Without a Hat by Jeanne Willis
Review:
Will is a new adult, moving out of his mother's house as her new partner moves in, and going to live in a shared house inhabited by a woman named Chrissy and 2 other young male tenants. He gets a new job and finds a girlfriend. But he has a secret, and you come to realise that he and his housemates are not totally average guys.
I loved Will, Zara, Chrissy and the other guys in the house. I also liked that his mother was not the sympathetic character that most writers write (especially if they are mothers themselves!).
There were a couple of things I was uncomfortable with in the story - it took the easy way out at the end, I thought, and I didn't like the way it portrayed gypsies.
I liked the twist and I'm sure I wouldn't have guessed Will's secret if I hadn't unfortunately seen a spoiler. I wonder whether and how much my view of Will would have changed after it's revealed, if I hadn't already known.
+20 task (53 ratings)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 60 points
10.1 Square PegGrowing Up Duggar: It's All About Relationships by Jana Duggar
Review
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started reading 'Growing Up Duggar' but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The four oldest Duggar Girls have come together to write a book about every type of relationship a girl/women can have and I for one thought they did an amazing job.
I personally do not believe in everything they stand for but I appreciate the style in which they share their godly hearts with the world. This book provided a glimpse into their unique life and I feel like I have grown a bit myself just by reading it.
I would recommend the book to anyone with an open mind and heart who truly want to know more about the Duggar's outlooks on life.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 30
10.10 - Group readsTenth of December by George Saunders
Review:
I really loved this collection by an author I hadn't read before. The stories were a little unusual in both style and content, at least to me. Some had a sci-fi flavor, such as when characters were given various fictional drugs to alter their perceptions and behavior. Sometimes the point-of-view would shift and leave me confused. Some of the stories were edge-of-your-seat, and I'd be almost afraid to continue out of fear of what bad thing might befall the characters. A recurring theme was the difficulty of doing the right thing, and the consequences of doing so. I found the individual stories and indeed the entire collection to be unputdownable. Some stories I forget by the next day, but not these. The last story clinched the 5-star rating. Thanks for this selection, Liz. I'm already looking to see how I can fit more of this author into this challenge.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-A-Novel
Task total=30
Grand total=45
D wrote: "10.10 - Group readsTenth of December by George Saunders
I'm already looking to see how I can fit more of this author into this challenge...."
I loved the story with the mom going to buy a puppy - it was heartbreaking.
Check out the 20.7 - Slipstream list, some of his other works are included on it.
Liz M wrote: "I loved the story with the mom going to buy a puppy - it was heartbreaking.It was definitely heartbreaking, and harrowing too, as was the first story, and the last story. Actually they were all heartbreaking and/or harrowing, but optimistic in spite of all that.
Check out the 20.7 - Slipstream list, some of his other works are included on it.
I noticed that. Sadly the only books I can get off Overdrive are The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil and The Braindead Megaphone. Both will work for 10.4. I'm going to give them a try, but might have to resort to interlibrary loans for the two titles on the slipstream list. Neat list, BTW, Jama!
10.1 Square PegTomato Red by Daniel Woodrell
Review:
"You're no angel, you know how this stuff comes to happen: Friday is payday and it's been a gray day sogged by a slow ugly rain and you seek company in your gloom, and since you're fresh to West Table, Mo., and a new hand at the dog-food factory, your choices for company are narrow but you find some finally in a trailer court on East Main...." Sammy Barlach, a loser ex-con who had a hard start in life, is hoping to find a place where he belongs when he moves to the rural Missouri town. He gets talked into breaking into a vacant mansion by the trailer court crowd that soon abandons him. In the mansion he meets a brother and sister who have also broken in. Jamalee Merridew, a 19-year-old with tomato red hair, has ambitions to rise out of poverty and live like the high class people who own the home. She's hoping her gorgeous 17-year-old brother Jason will be her ticket out of the poor Venus Holler section of West Table. Jason's got all the rich women lusting after him, but he does not return their feelings. Jamalee and Jason have been marked as white trash since their mother is a prostitute.
Sammy, the narrator of the story, gets taken in by the Merridews, and gets entangled in their lives. There are class conflicts between the rich and the poor, and we know who has the power and the resources. Sammy seems to have low expectations, looking at life with a bit of humor, but with a hint of violence and danger under the surface. Jamalee is very angry about how people treat her, and reads etiquette books, hoping for a better life.
Both the descriptions and the dialogue are offbeat, sometimes dark and sometimes humorous, with a Ozark country flavor. Although this is a short book, Daniel Woodrell's characters will be hard to forget.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
20.6 UnderratedThe Bay of Love and Sorrows by David Adams Richards
Review:
Michael Skid, the son of an affluent judge, has had a falling out with his best friend, Tom Donnerel, and no longer has the influence of Tom's good values. Michael and his new friends, Madonna and her brother Silver, are looking for some excitement during the summer of 1974 in a rural New Brunswick town. The charismatic ex-con Everette Hutch manipulates the group of young people into helping him with a big drug deal. One bad decision leads to larger unwise decisions, and eventually to some tragic consequences. It reaches the point where Michael and each of his friends cannot find their way out of the mess, and innocent people are hurt. Madonna and Silver are trapped by poverty as well as by the violent Everette. "He was the swirling centre, the black hole where all the debris, the planets and moons, like Madonna and Silver and Michael Skid, teetered and wobbled in their orbits, and were being sucked into. And this is exactly what all of them had sensed from the moment they had met him thirteen months before."
The author was very skillful at weaving a web around the characters where there is no way to escape unscathed. I admired the plotting, and felt the book gave a good sense of place in the small Canadian town. The story is very grim, with many unlikable low-life characters, so it would probably not appeal to some readers.
+20 task (book has 233 ratings)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 50
20.3 Thieves & MysteriesWhite Cat by Holly Black
Low Lexile
+20 task (#31 on thieves list)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 20
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 15
20.5 PoliticsOn the Eve by Ivan Turgenev
Lexile 930
+20 task (on the list of political novels)
+5 Combo (10.4)
+15 Oldies (published 1860)
Task total: 40
Grand Total: 60
20.6 - Underrated:The Divinity of Dogs by Jennifer Skiff
published 2012 with only 196 ratings
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 (Review)
Enjoyable stories about dogs and just how much they / their companionship can affect people. The stories are very short so there were quite a number of them with most quite touching. You really do need to be prepared for some tears. I didn’t quite cry but there were a number of teary moments on the train. These stories were submitted by people who have been affected or have seen significant effects by dog to others –either of loneliness, grief, sickness, etc. All, however, have learnt some important life lessons from dogs who, it seems, by instinct, knew just what their respective human friend needed. Hence, the implied divine nature of dogs.
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 55
20.6 UnderratedThe New Codependency: Help and Guidance for Today's Generation by Melody Beattie
Review:
I hadn't read the author's previous book, Codependent No More, so the concept was almost new to me. I had a very limited and partly mistaken view of how codependency is generally defined, and this book sets out many different situations where codependency can come into play that I hadn't imagined, so I found it a very useful introduction.
If using it as a self-help book, I think there would be almost too many action points and quizzes, and people might be overwhelmed. And in terms of treatment, Melody Beattie only discusses the 12-step programme approach, which some people will find limiting. But if that's what she finds works for her clients, it's understandable.
+20 task (350 ratings)
+ 5 combo (10.4 'generation' 10 letters)
+10 review
+10 not a novel (non-fiction)
Task total: 45
Grand Total: 120 points
20.6 UnderratedZug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel by Gregory A. Fournier
+20 Task (published 2011 and 24 ratings)
Grand Total: 20 points
15.1 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (1919)
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand Total 15
10.8 Comfort ReadLucky Us by Amy Bloom
+10 Task (5-star rating of Where the God of Love Hangs Out was given far prior to this task)
Task Total = 10
Grand Total = 10
15.2 BtW - Constant TravelerCrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley, 1921
+15 task
+15 bonus
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 150 points
10.4 9,10,11Witches, Spies And Stockholm Syndrome: Life in Medieval Ireland by Finbar Dwyer
This book contains a lot of fascinating information about medieval Ireland. Dwyer tries to give a picture of what life was like for the common person. But as he acknowledges at the beginning most of the records were kept by the Norman colonists and by the landed families, merchants and religious orders. This period was marked by famine, plague and almost constant warfare. Dwyer tells the story of the times by relaying the tales of individuals often from records of legal proceedings. This is where Dwyer is at his best.
My guess is that this book started as some of Dwyer's podcasts. Each chapter can stand alone and the development of the through story of the impact of violence is uneven. It is rather disconcerting to have a person or incident that was well described in a previous chapter be introduced as if the reader had never heard of it before.
The book is well foot-noted and there is a good bibliography. I would have liked an index especially because people and incidents repeatedly come up in different chapters.
I recommend this book for those interested in Irish history and medieval European history.
+10 Task (Stockholm)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
Task total: 30
Although is seems reasonable to assume that Dwyer was born in Ireland, I have found no documentation. I will keep looking.
Grand total: 30
10.1 - Square Peg:2666 by Roberto Bolaño 9/4/14
Review:
Though 2666 didn’t really fit the Fall Challenge, it’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while, so it’s my Square Peg of this season. The introduction explains that this was the final work of Roberto Bolaño, a Chilean who died in Spain of liver disease when he was only 50. The book is made up of five parts, which Bolaño wanted published individually, hoping that would provide a greater income for his family. After his death, it was decided to keep the work intact, and the 898 page book published in 2004 has since won many awards and has been called one of the greatest Spanish language novels of the decade.
Without giving away spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed the book and am glad that it was kept whole. The five parts are distinct, and the audio version even uses different narrators for each. Yet the overall story arch is disclosed only by reading all five parts. Bolaño’s style is quite different from the books I usually read, and I frequently had to go back to pick up details I might have overlooked. In the end, I learned how a book beginning with a group of European university professors seeking to find a reclusive German writer named Benno von Archimbaldi could lead the reader to the Mexican city of Santa Teresa where hundreds of bodies of murdered women were being found. The time to read this one was well-spent, and it’s one I’d recommend to friends.
+10 task
+10 review
+15 jumbo (898 pages)
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 35
20.9 - War BabiesThe Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 9/5/14
20.9 - Shirley Jackson was born 1916
Review:
The Haunting of Hill House was disappointing to me, since it’s been billed as one of the 50 scariest books of all time, and I didn’t find it scary! For that reason, I initially gave it 2 stars. Upon reflection I decided to be fair to the author and re-visit my opinion without the “scary story” filter.
What I took away from my reading was a fairly well-written story with an unusually-constructed house as a setting. The characters were brought together by a Doctor wanting to study the claims that the house might be haunted. Within that context, the focus shifts to a psychological study of one character. While it will never be one of my favorites, I did bump it up to 3 stars.
Combos
10.2 - Halloween - on all 3 lists
20.7 - Included on Slipstream list
+20 Task
+10 Combos (10.2, 20.7)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub 1959)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 80
10.3 – Leif Erikson A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen 9/5/14
This book was shelved 42 times as Norway.
Review:
A Doll’s House has received wide acclaim for Ibsen’s daring to portray the hypocrisy of women’s roles in Victorian marriages. Given that the book was published in 1879, over 40 years before all American women had the right to vote, he was certainly forward-thinking in that regard. Still, as explained in the spoiler that follows, it wasn’t quite enough for me to rate it more than 3 stars, since 3.5 is not an option.
(view spoiler)
Combos:
10.7 - International Ibsen Award
20.1 - Shelved 81 times as 19th Century
20.4 - On the linked list for Realism
+10 task
+15 combo (10.7, 20.1, 20.4)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (play)
+10 oldies (pub. 1879)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 135
10.7 Honored AuthorsThese Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lexile 840
+10 task
+5 Oldies (published 1943)
Task total: 15
Grand Total: 75
Task 10.4 - 9, 10, 11: 9=Awakening
Artemis Awakening (Artemis Awakened #1) (2014) by Jane Lindskold (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 304 pages)
Review:Jane Lindskold has published a 7-book series (“The Firekeeper Saga”) and a 3-book series (“Breaking the Wall”), both series labeled “complete” by the author. Artemis Awakening is the first book in a new series “Artemis Awakened”. In this book, she spends a long and leisurely time building the world of Artemis --- the environment, what happened 500 years ago, the various groups of people living on the world. She does it mainly by “showing” rather than “telling”, which is hard to do in a science fiction novel, so I appreciate that she was able to do so. The plot moves at a slow pace, which is OK because further books in the series are planned. A sub-plot of the multi-book story is resolved at the end of this novel; the main plot is left with a big TO BE CONTINUED appended after it. Artemis Awakening was published May 27, 2014 so it will be awhile before the next book in the series is published. (Her other two series published a book per year so 2015 is a reasonable guess for #2 of this series.) Overall, recommended for science fiction fans who like world-building in their novels, and who are content to wait a year for the next book in the series.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10+10=20
Grand Total: 00 + 20 = 20
10.9 MythologicalGrendel by John Gardner (Lexile 920)
Review:
"Grendel" is a retelling of the epic poem "Beowulf" from the point of view of the monster, Grendel. The poem was written in Old English sometime between the 8th and the 11th Century. The monster had been attacking the Scyldines in the mead hall of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes. The hero Beowulf, a Geat, destroys Grendel. Although the poem "Beowulf" tells of further adventures of the hero, the retelling ends with the death of Grendel.
The story was written in beautiful poetic prose. Even though Grendel committed terrible deeds, he also had a sympathetic lonely side to him and an appreciation of beauty. He was isolated and lonely with no friends to communicate with. One could see life through the eyes of the monster. The book was also nicely illustrated by Emil Antonucci with wonderful woodcut prints of Grendel's head.
+10 task
+ 5 combo (20.7)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1970)
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 80
10.8 Comfort ReadsThe Bones of Paris by Laurie R. King
This book is atmospheric. That word actually was running through my mind during most of my reading of the book. It’s also an engaging mystery, but King’s writing does as much to pull you into the setting of 1929 Paris as it does to advance the plot. I love a fast-paced thriller as much as the next person, but I enjoyed this book for the setting and characterization as much as for the plot. The depictions of the wild art scene at the time were fascinating and made for a dramatic backdrop to the murder mystery. I am a big fan of Laurie R. King’s other series and I’m excited to see where this one is headed.
+10 task (previously rated a number of her books 5 stars)
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 20
20.6 UnderratedKathleen by Candice Ransom
Review: When I was a young teenager, relegated to the paltry 1990s young adult section of the library, the Sunfire series of historical romances were some of my favorites. They don’t exactly hold up to my adult sensibilities, but I’ve tracked down all of them, even those that weren’t at my local library, and this was the last one I hadn’t read. The series has multiple authors and the books are not interconnected at all besides a basic plot similarity – 16ish year old girl is coming of age in a historic time period during which a major calamity is happening and has to choose between two boys while figuring out what her life should be. In this one, Kathleen is a victim of the Irish potato famine and finds herself emigrating to Boston after her entire family dies. The plot is just the same as pretty much all of the other Sunfire books, with Kathleen managing without major incident to overcome adverse circumstances with two boys courting her, but Ransom is one of the best of the authors. She integrates the history into her novels without being boring, and the story is at least basically plausible. I discovered my love of history by reading these stories, and it’s bittersweet to have read the last one. I only wish I’d had access to them all when I was young enough to overlook some of the silliness and just enjoy.
+20 Task (132 ratings)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (published 1985)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 35
20.1 19th CenturyThe Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
Review: I’ve been on a Scarlet Pimpernel kick recently, and this was one of the top recommended similar books by some romance novel blogs I read. It took a little while to get used to the switching perspectives – one set in the current day following a grad student’s research about 18th/19th century English spies, and the others set in Napoleonic France. It was a lot of fun, even if it was a bit predictable – as most romances are. I do wish the historical romance part had been given a little more time to develop, but I’m looking forward to continuing the series and seeing where the modern day portions go.
+20 task (shelved as 19th century 18 times)
+5 combo (10.2)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 70
Task 20.3 - Thieves & Mysteries:List: Victorian Mysteries.
#38 on September 06, 2014
Combo:
10.4 9-letter “Cracksman”
The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1) (1899) by E.W. Hornung (Paperback, 156 pages)
Review:E.W. Hornung was the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. After the success of the “Sherlock Holmes” stories of Doyle’s, many authors wrote and published their own eccentric detective stories. Hornung inverted the concept, and wrote a series of stories starring an accomplished cricket-playing gentleman burgler (Mr. Raffles) and his sometime accomplice (who also, like Watson, wrote up stories about their escapades afterwards). The Amateur Cracksman is a collection of the first 8 stories in the Mr. Raffle Gentleman Thief series. The writing is smooth and involving, and the reader gets to learn a lot about our narrator’s thoughts and feelings about himself, about Mr. Raffles, and about the events of the stories. However, the stories have a dated feel to them. In the “Ides of March” our protagonists leave fingerprints in the dust without worry; “A Costume Piece” had racist language not considered acceptable in the 21st century; and so on. Overall, recommended for those who want to read Victorian Mysteries written by actual Victorians (and who are willing to overlook the 19th century attitudes in the stories).
+20 Task (#20.3 Thieves)
+10 Combo (#10.4 9-letter-word, #20.6 underrated)
+10 Not-a-Novel: short story collections, non-fiction, plays, and poetry collections.
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1864-1938)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 60
Grand Total: 20 + 60 = 80
20.7 – Make it Strange The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
+20 task
+10 oldies (pub. 1915)
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 75
20.10 - Higher EducationV for Vendetta by Alan Moore
Graphic novel - no styles
+20 task (Berkeley list: http://reading.berkeley.edu/srl_2014....)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 170 points
20.6 UnderratedThe Earth by Émile Zola
As the title suggests, all revolves on La Terre, the Earth. The soil will remain beyond the bounds of time; as individuals, we are but temporary husbands of it. These peasants, these husbands of the soil, are a passionate people. From the beginning we know their passion for the soil runs deep and has lasted for generations. Zola does not restrict their passions to the soil. While never graphic, the reader is never in doubt that a peasant's lust is often satisfied. I'm glad I don't have to like the characters in a novel to like the novel, but if you do, you will probably want to avoid this one. The few sympathetic characters appear infrequently. True evil lurks in this one, and, in addition to the lust, there is violence. This violence is especially cruel, and more graphic than the lust.
(full review)
+20 Task (686 ratings)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub 1887)
Task total = 40
Grand total = 40
10.8 Comfort ReadMagic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
Review: This is the seventh in what might be my favorite urban fantasy series, and in a lot of ways it just keeps getting better and better. This installment, as is mentioned in the forward, feels in many ways like the finale, but it’s really just the end of a plotline. The main character, Kate Daniels, has been in hiding for a long time, but her secrets aren’t as hidden as they once were. She’s known that the events in this book have been coming, but I don’t think she ever expected things to go down quite the way they did.
Kate Daniel’s world is completely fascinating. It’s a world where magic and technology are at war, where gods are sometimes real, and where something thought to be fiction might be a reality. It weaves a number of mythologies into a unique background I’ve never seen. In earlier installments there have been large plot points revolving around legends and fables that I’ve rarely or never seen in most literature – Indian, Slavic, Celtic, etc. – but the one that is woven throughout is actually based on a combination of Jewish and ancient Babylonian. That’s the one heavily featured in this book, although they do run into some creatures from other myths (like a wendigo) along the way.
This a great book in a great series – the authors have done a lot of build up to get here. The books definitely need to be read in order, although the first is the weakest of the bunch and probably could be skipped.
+10 Task ( I rated Magic Strikes 5 stars )
+5 Combo (10.9 – approved in help thread)
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 95
20.9 - War Babies - Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task:The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
born February 5, 1942
I’m not one to read horror novels though I’ve enjoyed some gothic novels. There is just that slight difference from being totally scary and of the atmosphere of just being dark... I read most of this book in daylight but for some reason I finished reading it in the middle of the night, in bed, in the dark. Luckily, I didn’t find it too scary though I think that’s more to do with how disappointed I was at the ending (it was no surprise at all). Written in journal-like entries, Arthur Kipps was seeking to expunge some of his pains from a ghostly encounter of his youth. There were some moments of horror but somehow they didn’t quite translate through the pages... I felt that they were mentioned and then was swept aside because he didn’t want to dwell in them. This makes perfect sense with what the character would’ve felt but it didn’t make a very scary reading.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.2 - one of 25 Books that Inspired Scary Movies)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1983)
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 95
Post 24 itpdx wrote: "10.4 9,10,11Witches, Spies And Stockholm Syndrome: Life in Medieval Ireland by Finbar Dwyer
This book contains a lot of fascinating information about medieval Ire..."
+5 Combo 20.6 Underrated (12 ratings)
Post 29 Deedee wrote: "Task 10.4 - 9, 10, 11: 9=Awakening
Artemis Awakening (Artemis Awakened #1) (2014) by Jane Lindskold (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 304 pages)
Review:Jane Lindskold..."
+5 Combo 20.6 Underrated (240 ratings)
15.2 - BtW - Constant TravelerThe Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair
+15 Task
+15 Bonus
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 125
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 24 itpdx wrote: "10.4 9,10,11Witches, Spies And Stockholm Syndrome: Life in Medieval Ireland by Finbar Dwyer
+5 Combo 20.6 Underrated (12 ratings) ..."
I show that the book was published in 2013 so would not qualify as I understand the task.
itpdx wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 24 itpdx wrote: "10.4 9,10,11Witches, Spies And Stockholm Syndrome: Life in Medieval Ireland by Finbar Dwyer
+5 Combo 20.6 Underra...
I show that the book was published in 2013 so would not qualify as I understand the task. "
Thank you - you are correct. I forgot that little restriction.
20.1 - 19th Century:Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
>I picked Moloka’i off the library shelf because it was a “national bestseller” and I am grateful that I read it. In the first place, I had no idea that Moloka'i actually existed and as I was reading the book shared my impressions with a friend. Turns out, she knew about Moloka'i and mentioned several people who were famous for their work among those suffering from Hanson's disease (so-called "lepers"). Based on what she told me, this work of historical fiction is quite accurate. But, regardless of its historical accuracy, the story is compelling as it follows the life of one patient confined to the island from 1893 until 1947, the family she creates and the friendships she forges.<
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
10.8 - Comfort Read - Cory Day's Task:Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami is a master of the writing craft. His newest book is really quite straightforward yet intriguing as Tsukuru Tazaki sets out on a pilgrimage of discovery. He was rejected by his tight group of high school friends, but never found out why, so he sets out to solve the mystery almost 20 years later. Murakami’s elegant prose is the real star of the show, though. This offering has just a smattering of the magical components of his other recent works and although I missed that in the book, it left me satisfied because I could relate to Tazaki’s quest for his lost friends and lost youth.
+10 Task: I rated 1Q84 5 stars in July, 2012
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 - 9, 10, 11 (colorless,pilgrimage)
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 25
Task 20.3 - Thieves & MysteriesRaffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung
Review:
“A man's reach must exceed his grasp, dear boy, or what the dickens is a heaven for?”
In Decline of the English Murder, George Orwell takes Raffles as his prime example of circa-1900 glamorised crime fiction, and compares it with what the genre has become by c1940 (in James Hadley Chase, and his ilk), to draw some fascinating contrasts. Mostly these revolve around the “Americanisation” of English culture, in language, desires, and morality, the impetus for which he lays at WWII: both conceptually (people preparing for, and escaping from, “the mingled boredom and brutality of war”) and more pragmatically (the inability to import the American pulps during the war created a market for a local equivalent), though being Orwell he also has to draw out how such books are stepping stones to Fascism.
I’d love to see a similar exposition seventy-plus years on. Raffles is no longer “one of the best-known characters in English fiction”, and although the appetite for crime fiction is stronger than ever — not only in books, but also film, and particularly TV drama — it’s primarily focussed on what Orwell sets out as the Edgar Wallace tradition: of crimes being solved, and justice being done, as much by the Organisation than the Individual. But the “gentleman thief” persists too, and there’s a clear lineage from Raffles through Simon Templar and Nick Velvet to someone like Bernie Rhodenbarr, and even, in a slightly odd way John Dortmunder[1]; each of whom stand in contrast with the more “hard-boiled” characters even from the same author (Matt Scudder, and Parker). As such it’s interesting to go back and read Hornung’s originals. They’re very much of their time, and Bunny, the narrator (Raffles’ Watson) is often a little too much to take, but they’re generally light, fun, and clever (and short, so even the duds are over quickly). “Nine Points of the Law” is particularly well done.
--
[1] And I’m now wondering if the running joke of Stan’s ultra-detailed New York driving directions are a deliberate reference to several London equivalents in Raffles (“I just hurried up to Blackfriars and booked for High Street, Kensington, at the top of my voice; and as the train was leaving Sloane Square out I hopped, and up all those stairs like a lamplighter, and round to the studio by the back streets. Then I took a hansom in the King's Road, and drove like the deuce to Clapham Junction; rushed on to the nearest platform, without a ticket, jumped into the first train I saw, got out at Twickenham, walked full tilt back to Richmond, took the District to Charing Cross, and here I am!”)
20 task: 20.3 (on both lists)
+10 combos: 10.4 9-letter-word (‘Cracksman’) + #20.6 Underrated (824 ratings)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel (short stories)
+10 Oldies (1899)
Task total: 60
Grand Total: 75
10.4 - 9, 10, 11: Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
What a little gem! Christopher Morley’s The Haunted Bookshop has been on my TBR for a while now and when I slotted it into my fall reading and read the synopsis, I discovered that Parnassus on Wheels preceded it, so I knew I had to read it first. Morley’s characterizations of the two main characters are delightful and his sense of humor shines through. The plot is wonderfully predictable in that you know before the characters do that more is happening than a business transaction between Helen and Roger. Their adventures on Parnassus on Wheels, an early bookmobile, make for a satisfying read as they bring a love of books to the common people. I have moved right on to The Haunted Bookshop (otherwise known as “Parnassus at Home”) and I am already drawn into the further adventures of a wise book seller!
+10 Task: parnassus
+10 Review
+10 Oldies: 1917
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 55
10.1 - Square PegThe Pigman by Paul Zindel
Lexile 950
Review:
Such a sad book! I'm always very touched by stories of elderly people being disappointed and it was clear this wasn't going to end well for the Pigman from the start, so I found it a very painful read. I wanted to go in there and rescue him, although he was his own worst enemy in some ways.
It's a classic YA novel from 1968 and of course is rather dated, especially in some of the language, but I think the situation and the emotions are timeless so it still has a lot of power for the modern reader and could open up some good discussions about guilt and blame.
+10 task
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (pub. 1968)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 195 points
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Quantum Leap: Obsessions (other topics)The Secret Place (other topics)
Dracula (other topics)
The Trial of Andrew Johnson (other topics)
Stranger Things Happen (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Carol Davis (other topics)Tana French (other topics)
Bram Stoker (other topics)
Noel B. Gerson (other topics)
Noel B. Gerson (other topics)
More...
PLEASE ONLY POST ONE BOOK PER MESSAGE.
Please use the add book/author link for the book titles. When claiming combo points, tell how the book qualifies, and, if requested in the task description provide a link.
Reading w/Style (RwS) Sample Completed Tasks Post:
20.1 - 19th Century:
The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
> insert 100+ word review here <
+20 task
+10 combos (10.2 - Halloween, 10.7 - Honored Authors - Edgar Award)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel
+15 oldies
+15 jumbo
Task total: 65
Grand Total: 545
(This assumes the post is mid-challenge, and that you had previously posted 480 points)