Reading with Style discussion
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SU 2016 Completed Tasks
Five Years Through Summer (FYTS) Sample Post:15.5 FYTS: Time Traveler
1941-1991
The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
+25 Task
+5 Bonus (over 500 pages)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 400
This assumes 370 points have already been claimed for the season.
20.2 The Gods!Theogony/Works and Days by Hesiod
Not being a student of the gods, I often get confused...which is not a good thing since there are allusions to the Greek and Roman gods throughout English literature. In this ancient account, Hesiod provides mostly a genealogical history of the Greek pantheon. It reminded me of lessons learned before such as Athena being born from Zeus' head... but then I also learned that Zeus had many other children before and after Athena by several gods. I never realized that the Muses were Zeus' daughters. What struck me is the similarities in creation myths and the reinforcement that mortal kings derive their authority from the divinities. One other note...this translation was much more enjoyable to read than the translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses which I also read recently... it covered the same ground from the Roman point of view.
task +20
canon +10
translated +10
review +10
total = 50
Grand Total = 50
15.1 FYTS: Time Traveler1965-2015
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 15
20.3 - WinnersCider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
impossible now not to be swayed by the knowledge that Laurie Lee exaggerated certain aspects of his childhood. All the same, it's a lovely evocation of growing up in a village on the slopes of a Gloucestershire valley, so far removed from 'civilisation' that anything further than Stroud, 5 miles away, was another world. The description of carol singing and the mysteries of the village school were marvellous.
Reading this as an adult, it's his mother's situation - abandoned to bring up not only her own 3 children, but also her 4 stepchildren by his father's previous marriage - that really pulled the heartstrings for me.
+20 Task (WHSmith Literary Award 1960)
+5 Combo (10.7 stars with C)
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 35
15.1 FYTS: Time Traveller1963-2008
The Graduate by Charles Webb
+15 Task (1963)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 50
20.3 WinnersCider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
When Laurie Lee was three years old his family moved to a small Cotswold village. The family of eight had been abandoned by Laurie's father although he still sent them money. His mother was loving, but a bit flighty. The book is an account of village life, where the people lived close to the land, during the decade after World War I. His mother cooked over a wood fire, and water was hand pumped. The children attended a two room schoolhouse. The family enjoyed the simple things in life, but life also brought hardships.
Laurie was hit with just about every childhood illness imaginable, and almost died several times. An older sister did not survive childhood, a common but tragic event in the time before antibiotics. Difficult times like these balance other parts of the story that probably present an idealized view of his childhood.
The book ends with Laurie reaching adolescence and discovering girls. The title refers to him and an early love interest, Rosie, drinking hard cider under a hay wagon.
"Cider with Rosie" opens a window into a different time and place. Changes are seen by the end of the decade as the landowning squire dies, motorized vehicles fill the roads, and former soldiers choose non-farming occupations. The book is very descriptive, and often reads like poetic prose. Lee has a good sense of humor and included humorous events into his charming account of country life.
+20 task (W.H. Smith Literary Award 1960)
+ 5 combo 10.7
+10 review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 35
20.2 The Gods!The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Low lexile - no combos
But I finally finished the series!!
+20 task
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 20
20.7 - U.SColumbine by Dave Cullen
We all watched Columbine unfold on TV but how many of us followed the investigation in the many months and years after? What we learned during those first few days stuck. We never bothered to update our mental map of the massacre, but Cullen did. He was at the school in the first days after the attack and stayed with the story for ten years.
The most masterful part of this book is the structure. Often books about a disaster talk about all the exciting stuff that happened the day of first, then spend the remaining 70% rehashing legal battles and roads to recovery. It's chronologically accurate but increasingly tedious. In Columbine Cullen starts with the very basics of the attack, introducing us to key survivors and victims. He keeps that story rolling forward while interspersing it with Dylan and Eric's life and actions leading up to their own deaths. The tension between the two story lines keeps the narrative gripping throughout, and the transitions are mostly smooth.
This book was recommended to me as an excellent example of journalism and I wholeheartedly agree.
+20 task (author D.C.)
+5 combo (10.7 - starts with C)
+10 review
Task total: 35 points
Grand total: 35 points
15.2 FYTS: Time Traveler1965-2015
Being There by Jerzy Kosiński
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 30
20.3 WinnersUprooted by Naomi Novik
()
Review:
Agnieszka lives in a small village in a remote valley on the bord of a dark and menacing Wood. The local lord, The Dragon, is a wizard, who keeps the people of the valley as safe as he can from the Wood, but as compensation he claims one young woman every ten years, who will come and stay with him in his tower for the next ten years. Agnieszka is not scared when the choosing comes aroung, only sad for her friend Kasia, who is beautiful, brave, accomplished and sure to be chosen by The Dragon. Except she isn't and Agnieszka soon finds herself in the tower where she has to make sense of The Dragon, The Wood and herself.
I like the Temeraire-series that Naomi Novik has written, but Uprooted is a far step beyond even that work. She has crafted a dark and brooding novel that conjures up thoughts of Eastern European folk tales. The Wood is horrifying and strange and a character unto itself.
I've just finished it, and I am finding it difficult to explain satisfyingly, but it is in the top three of the books I have read so far this year.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30 pts
Grand total: 30 pts
Square Peg 10.1Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Familyby Glenn PlaskinThis book has been on my TBR list for awhile. I loved this book. I think I would have loved Katie. She brought the neighbors together and made them family. She enriched their lives and enriched her owner's life. I think I would have loved Pearl, his elderly neighbor. She took on the role of Glenn's grandmother and friend. My grandparents have passed away. This book reminded me of "Marley and Me". I found it to be heartwarming and I feel the author's life was changed. I cried when Katie died and then when Pearl died. Pets make our lives better. Also, the author interviewed many famous people I have heard of when he wrote for the Daily News.
Task +10
Style +10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 20
Task 20.9 Political Read a non-fiction book about politics
The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age (2014) by Myra MacPherson (ŷ Author) (Hardcover, 432 pages)
Review: This is a non-fiction book about the life of Victoria Woodhull and her younger sister Tennessee Claflin. Victoria Woodhull is the first women ever to run for the President of the United States. She and her sister advocated “votes for women�, elimination of the double standard of behavior between men and women, and spiritualism. (Why should prostitutes be condemned but their customers are not condemned?) Breezy, “People� magazine style of writing, scrupulously keeping to what is known, this book is easy to read and holds the reader’s interest until the end. Over half the book is focused on the 1870s, despite the fact that the sisters had a childhood before the 1870s and lived until after the end of World War I. No original research, but then, the author’s target audience is the general reader and not the historian. Recommended.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 00 + 30 = 30
15.1 FYTS: Time Traveler2016-1971
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
+15 Task
Task total: 15 pts
Grand total: 45 pts
20.5 London CallingStone's Fall by Iain Pears
I read this at this time because it is included in the listopia London Calling. I found it interesting that the action takes place in three cities: London, Paris and Venice. There are a couple of places where Pears describes London and Paris that were quite good. Following a more detailed description (and I use the term "description" loosely, because the words to me are more active than passive) he says:
Just one street. Multiply it by thousands and you have London, sprawling over the landscape, containing every vice and virtue, every language, every kindness and cruelty. it is incomprehensible, unpredictable and strange. Huge wealth and greater poverty, every disease you could imagine, and every pleasure. It had frightened me when I first arrived; it frightens me now. It is an unnatural place, as far from the Garden of Eden as you could imagine.And of a neighborhood in Paris:
It is a den of cutthroats and fugitives, perfect for people who need or wish to disappear. The address I was seeking lay right at its heart, past the raddled women standing in the alleyways; past the men with narrow faces and suspicious eyes who watch as you walk by; past the long shadows, and sudden noises of something moving behind you; past the soft laughter that you hear faintly down side alleys.This is a plot-driven novel that does a better job of characterization than one might expect for a plot-drive novel. In addition to the three locations, there are three time periods: 1909, 1890, 1867, and interestingly, is told in reverse chronological order. Each of these is told in the first person by a different character. All overlaps and is intertwined.
It is a good mystery. About a 100 pages or so from the ending, I had a suspicion about the outcome, but that didn't spoil the story in the least. I'm glad to have read this and will look forward to reading others by this author. Five stars (but only just crosses that threshold), because it combines above average prose, better than expected characterization, and an engaging plot.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.7 - S)
+ 5 Jumbo (594 pgs)
+10 Review
Task Total = 40
10.1 Square PegNaughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
This is the fifth installment in the “Royal Spyness� series. The main character is the impoverished Lady Georgiana (Georgie) and the novels are about various adventures she has while solving a mystery. I like this series quite a bit, and this novel is a fun, fast and light read. Due to her upbringing, Georgie is quite naïve, but there were times in this novel that I felt she was approaching dumb � hopefully, that won’t continue in the next installment. There is a whole cast of continuing characters which add to the color and are there to support Georgie (except the unpleasant sister in law�). Because of the continuing characters I would advise reading the series in order. I did think one of the incidents near the end of the novel was a bit too implausible (that Georgie would have escaped unscathed from). However, the ending was rip-roaring and all of the pieces came together nicely. Overall an enjoyable book, and I will definitely continue with this series.
10 task
10 review
_____
20
Running total: 20
10.1 Square PegNausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
Review
Not the book for me! I understand some of his views and had probably at some points in time question my own existence etc etc etc but seriously, instead of getting too carried away into depression, get a grip, love, and move on! On another note, some of the reflection language is precious and I do wonder whether I’d appreciate this book more in perhaps 20 years from now when I will be somewhat close in situation with the main character... at the moment, I’m too caught up with my youth and my children to stop for long and consider the purpose of my existence. However, due to my faith, I don’t think I’ll ever be in this position as I do believe there is purpose to my existence.
+10 Task
+10 Canon
+10 LiT (originaly pub in French & read in English)
+10 Review
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 40
20.6 WarThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Well...just to show you how out of popular culture I am-- I was describing this book to a friend and she said that she had seen the movie. I didn't know anything about the movie. When I heard that the two main roles were played by Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet... it changed my perspective of the characters I had just been reading about. I'm probably the only person who didn't know about the movie. Anyway, the character Ralph Fiennes plays is just a teenage boy (Michael) when he meets and falls in lust...and then love with Kate's Winslet's character the 20s-something Hanna. One day, Hanna disappears without a clue left behind. Years later, Michael is a law student working on a case dealing with Nazi war crimes. Hanna is one of the defendants. This is where my imagination still viewed Michael as much younger than Ralph Fiennes would have been in the movie. Without spoiling the ending for those few who read the book or didn't see the movie, Michael and Hanna have a complicated resolution of their respective emotions years after the trial. I thought the book was well written and having recently visited Auschwitz it brought back the feelings of emptiness and frustration I felt there.
Task +20
Review +10
Translated +10
Total = 40
Grand Total = 90
20.1 South AmericaThere Were Many Horses by Luiz Ruffato
This book was one of those that contains shards of a broken mirror reflecting a theme, more prose poetry than novel or short story collection. I often enjoy the different voices in these, but I like them better if I can clearly see the theme or the parts are tied together by related characters or some such. But this one didn't feel like there was anything tying it together other than a gritty hopelessness. Even the well-off were essentially unhappy.
I have a hard time believing this is considered a defining work of Brazilian literature, as the intro says. Sure, some of the language was impressive, even in translation, and different things were done with the words to vary the pacing and pattern, including a menu here and a list of prostitutes there... but still. I just don't get it.
born in Brazil
+20 task
+10 translated
+10 review
Task total: 40
Grand total: 40
20.2 The GodsWeight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson
Review:
There's something about Winterson's writing that just reaches deep into my heart when I read it. This wasn't my favorite of her books, but I still really enjoyed it.
This is a retelling of the Atlas and Hercules stories. The focus is primarily on Atlas, but Hercules also plays a large part. And Hera and Zeus make appearances as well. The book is best read with at least passing familiarity with the stories and characters because references to storylines are rarely fleshed out and detailed. Instead, the stories are used as scenery -- and as street signs, as decorations -- in the playful language and retelling. Explicitly, "I want to tell the story again."
Yes, there are graphic and perhaps gratuitous sexual images. Yes, her interpretation here isn't completely original or new. No, she's not the only person to connect the story of Atlas with the story of Jesus. And, yes, the book is ultimately more about Winterson herself than insight into Hercules or Atlas. But I liked it. I looked forward to coming back to it. And I was sad when it was over.
Happily, I have Winterson's actual autobiography, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? slated to listen to soon. She reads it herself. And it's explicitly about herself. I'm looking forward to that one.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.10)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 40
20.6 WarThe End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Another instance of me opening up blind and not really knowing what I was going to read. I thought it was a book about a love affair. Depending on what GR edition page you open up will give you a completely different perspective on what to expect. The synopsis on the audio edition I listened to would almost agree with what I have written above, but the one for the MPE is full of spoilers.
This is not so much the story of the love between a man and a woman, but a question about a higher love, the love of God. Is there a God? Can those who don't believe, and most particularly our narrator, Bendrix, who denies God throughout and sees Him as a rival to his love, come to believe and love Him ?
My husband pointed out after I had finished, that this is classic Greene territory, but there is a lot more passion in the heart of Bendrix than I have found in his other works and character - because I was listening to an audiobook rather than reading? Perhaps. Thinking back on The Quiet American, Fowler is perhaps a little more intense when played by Michael Caine than on the page, but Bendrix, he is a ball of emotion, wound up tight in the conflicting emotions of love and hate, full of spite when the negatives take hold, but unable to stop himself from becoming involved, sometimes in ways that seem strange, under the circumstances with the people around him.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combos (20.5)
Task Total = 35
Grand Total - 55
20.9 - PoliticalEmma's War by Deborah Scroggins
The title is a little misleading because this is probably only 50% about Emma McCune who went out to southern Sudan as an aid worker (or perhaps as a crusader in search of a cause) and her marriage to and life with one of the leaders of the guerilla rebel forces. The rest of it is about the violence, tragedies and pointlessness of the war itself. There are some horrifying passages about suffering in famine and war, and information is woven in about the history and traditions of the country, which I knew nothing about.
This is set in the 1990s and I assumed it must be well out of date but shockingly I have just read that it isn't. Even though South Sudan gained independence from the north in 2011, the situation there is apparently just as bad now, and in much the same way, with some changes of names and allegiances. Riek Machar, Emma's husband, is vice-president.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.6 shelved 962)
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 85
20.6 WarThe Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen by Wilfred Owen
#6 on list
It was jarring to read a modern view of war, of horror and gas masks and amputations and PTSD, where such things are not shied from, written in what looked like a traditional form of rhyming poetry, fitting by form and expression into a lyrical tradition. Somehow I expect the sentiments to be in blank verse. The poems were powerful and poignant. I went and read up on the poet afterwards and apparently he was playing with assonance not just being traditional, I just didn't notice, and he wrote many of the poems between having been at the front and choosing to go back to it.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 canon
Task total: 40
Grand total: 80
20.3 Winners!Uprooted by Naomi Novik
won this year's Nebula Award
YA noted on genre but lexile of 960
Wow. This book devoured my evening. I think I need to go back and read parts of it again because I'm sure I missed things because I picked up speed as I went deeper in.
It's a very interesting collection of magic systems and clash of expectations. The first person perspective is employed well in how the story is carried out. In a way it's more than one book, because the heroine first finds her own power then has to face a larger world of politics and court battles, which circles back around to her own world of wood and Wood.
It's a bit of fairy tale and a bit of romance and a bit of adventure and I enjoyed it very much. It has a much more open feel to it than her Teremaire books some time ago, which I also enjoyed reading a couple of years ago but had to push into and past sections when I did.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 110
20.4 Go For The GoldWaiting by Ha Jin
Review: "Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." Lin had married Shuyu, an uneducated, traditional Chinese woman in an arranged marriage when his father needed someone to take care of Lin's dying mother. But Lin had gone to school to become a doctor and was now living in an urban environment. He wanted to marry Manna, a nurse who was more sophisticated and modern. Shuyu refuses to give him a divorce, and the Communist Party rules say there has to be 18 years of marital separation before Lin can obtain the divorce without the consent of Shuyu.
Lin and Manna wait...and wait...and wait for 18 years. In the 1960s there could be serious political consequences if they are alone together outside the hospital grounds, and Lin is a cautious person. During the two decades that elapse in "Waiting", the political and social climate slowly changes as the three main characters age. The book is mainly a character study of Lin and Manna. How much of their history together was influenced by love, and how much by circumstances? Has Lin truly loved anyone with a deep passion, or is he always the recipient of love? Have their lives passed them by because they are always living for the future and not enjoying the present? "Waiting" is a character-driven, quiet book that won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1999.
+20 task (China)
+ 5 combo (20.3 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2000)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 70
15.1 5YTS Time Leaper (1964-2009 or 2014)As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
+15 task (pub 1969)
+ 5 non-fiction (memoir)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 90
20.3 WinnersSilent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
+20 Task (RITA award 2008)
+5 Combo (10.7)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 55
15.1 5YTS Time Traveler (1966-2016)Lust & Wonder by Augusten Burroughs
+15 Task
+5 Nonfiction (memoir)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 60
20.10 MetafictionNever Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This book is a bit hard to review because on the face of it the story is very simple and it would be easy to spoil it. Overall, I found this to be a very slow moving, quiet, and sad book (although not hard to read at all). I think it/Ishiguro does a good job of raising moral and ethical issues (which you realize fully by the end of the book). The one thing I will say is that I disagree with the readers who place this book in the sci fi/dystopian group. It is much closer to books written by Ian McEwan, and if you enjoy fiction that makes you think about current ethical and moral issues than you should enjoy this book.
20 task
10 review
___
30
Running total: 50
15.2 FYTS: Time Traveller1963-2008
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Lexile 940
+15 Task (1968)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 100
20.3 WinnersThe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Review:
I previously tried to read the kindle version of this book and gave up after about 10% of the text.
This time around, it was selected by a book club, so I picked up the audio version. The audio is definitely the best way to experience this book. Jarring transitions that felt clunky and confusing in print were handled quite skillfully by the narrator and with important pauses that made them easier to go with. Also, hearing the description of the shifting emotional state of the narrator as she described getting increasingly drunk worked much better as an oral recounting than it did in print.
The most interesting aspect of this book was, surprisingly, not the plot or the mystery. The discussion of (semi-)functional alcoholism and the effect of blackouts on regular life was the part of the book that made the book worth reading. The plot, while driving the story forward, was rather predictable. Plus, the characters were so dislikeable and irrational that I didn't much care what happened to them.
I don't quite understand the amount of hype this book has received, but I'd definitely want to see the movie if I have the time. Not really a recommended book, but if you're going to read it, go for the audio.
+20 Task (Audie Award 2016 [and well deserved])
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 90
20.3 WinnersThe Illegal by Lawrence Hill
Won Canada Reads in 2016
Review:
I enjoyed this novel a lot more than I expected. I am reading it for my Book Club and do not tend to read a lot of straight fiction, or any of those sort of award winners because I find I am not sufficiently engaged. However, Hill's writing style was simple and really drew you in. I'm totally a sucker for elements coming together (I'm sure there is a literary term for this), so I loved how all the characters were connected in some way. I think I had anticipated the book to be a lot more description based but was pleasantly surprised because it is heavily plot and character driven.
+20 Pts
+10 Review
Grand Total: 30 Pts
20.4 Go for the Gold!There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
+20 Task (set in Russia)
+10 lost in Translation
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 85
10.6 - 901.9An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
An Edible History of Humanity was a pretty interesting read, in my opinion. He goes into depth about the economics of food, the mechanisms of agricultural development, and how the availability of foodstuffs made or broke cultures. Unfortunately, it felt like the book didn’t flow as well as it could have. It seemed rather choppy in places and kind of jumped around sometimes. As an anthropological study, it’s very informative, though. If you’re looking for a fairly broad overview or some lighter historical reading, it’s definitely worth picking up. I do have to give the author kudos for making a potentially very heavy subject very readable.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
10.4 - #23 on dark listNever Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go was quite a surprise to me. I’d heard about it repeatedly and never got around to reading it (or listening to it, as the case may be). I’m quite glad I finally picked this one up. It’s nothing like what I expected. It’s science fiction, but only peripherally � the story itself revolves more around the relationships between the three main characters than the ostensible alternative present that the characters inhabit. The plot feels almost like it’s secondary to the exploration of these characters and their *reactions* to it. It’s a very good book, but it’s very meandering. It’s a bit difficult to describe this book without giving away the main plot, but it’s definitely worth reading.
+10 task
+ 5 combo (20.10)
+10 review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 45
Post 19 Ed wrote: "20.6 WarThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Well...just to show you how out of popular culture I am-- I was describing this book to a friend and she said that she had seen..."
Although I can't read the name of it, this won a Greek award in 2000, so combo with 20.3.
Post #3 Ed wrote: "20.2 The Gods!Theogony/Works and Days by Hesiod
Not being a student of the gods, I often get confused...which is not a good thing since there are allusions to the Gree..."
Ed, the MPE for this is only 79 pages, but we usually have an exception for poetry so the member gets to claim the edition they actually read. (Poetry can vary widely in page length and this one is pretty much all over the place.) Can you link to that edition or give us the ISBN of the edition you read?
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 19 Ed wrote: "20.6 WarThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Well...just to show you how out of popular culture I am-- I was describing this book to a friend and she sai..."
LOL....thanks!
I just looked it up...it is the Greek-German Translation Prize
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post #3 Ed wrote: "20.2 The Gods!Theogony/Works and Days by Hesiod
Not being a student of the gods, I often get confused...which is not a good thing since there are al..."
I don't see the edition I read on the Good Reads page...at least none of the covers or page counts match. I already returned the book to the library but looked it up on my borrowing history and it provides this info:
"Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, c1983.
ISBN: 9780801829994
0801829992
9780801829987
0801829984
Branch Call Number:
Characteristics: x, 168 p. ; 26 cm.
Additional Contributors:Athanassakis, Apostolos N.
Alternate Title:Theogony, Erga kai Hemerai, and Aopis "
Ed wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post #3 Ed wrote: "20.2 The Gods!Theogony/Works and Days by Hesiod
Not being a student of the gods, I often get confused...which is not a go..."
Got it! It's here: Theogony; Works and Days; and Shield (even if that's not *your* cover!)
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Ed wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post #3 Ed wrote: "20.2 The Gods!Theogony/Works and Days by Hesiod
Not being a student of the gods, I often get confused...which ..."
That's it...I didn't see that cover.
Thanks!
Post 35 Heather wrote: "10.6 - 901.9An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
An Edible History of Humanity was a pretty interesting read, in my opinion. He goes into depth about the ec..."
This is shelved as DDC 394.1209 at , so does not qualify for 10.6.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 35 Heather wrote: "10.6 - 901.9An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
An Edible History of Humanity was a pretty interesting read, in my opinion. He goes..."
Huh, ok. I'm not seeing anywhere else it will fit, so I guess move it to my Square Peg slot, please.
Task 10.7 First Letter (Tien's Task)Read a book with a title that starts with a letter found in OLYMPICS.
Shadows on the Rock (1931) by Willa Cather (Paperback, 229 pages)
Review: This novel was a gentle story about a 13 year old girl living in 1698 Quebec, Canada with her widowed apothecary father. There were frequent, uniformly positive references to the French Roman Catholic religion (and the Jesuit priests and the nuns). Kind, religious Frenchmen were helpful and charitable towards their less fortunate neighbors. In between descriptions of religious observances and charitable acts, the novel indulges in rather long descriptive paragraphs about the landscape in and around Quebec (or “Kebec� as the novel calls the village). No Native Americans are present in the story. Overall, this was a surprisingly restful and conflict-free novel. Reading it was like listening to classical music in a Catholic Cathedral.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 30 + 20 = 50
20.3 Winners!Spiral by Paul McEuen
+20 task (ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel winner 2012)
+ 5 combo (10.7 OLYMPICS "Spiral")
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 25
15.1 - FYTS - Time Traveler1968 - 2013
The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
Valerie wrote: "20.10 MetafictionNever Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This book is a bit hard to review because on the face of it the story is very simple and it would be easy to spoil ..."
+5 Combo 10.4
Coralie wrote: "20.3 WinnersSilent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
+20 Task (RITA award 2008)
+5 Combo (10.7)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 55"
+5 Jumbo 509 pages in MPE
20.9 PoliticsThe Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer
"Politics"-genre on the main page
Review:
(Spoiler alert!)
It started so well, but ended so badly...
Ben Addison is a young promising lawyer clerking for one of the nine Supreme Court justices, a position which will secure him a golden career, if he can only work hard and respect the confidentiality agreement. Alas, our young hero is tricked into revealing the outcome of a multi-million dollar merger lawsuit to a person who is definitely not named Rick. A nice game of cat and mouse ensues, and in the beginning the planning by Rick and his fellow Musketeers is interesting, but all the minor grievances started stacking up, making the book thoroughly annoying by the end.
First of all, the author changes view point liberally, revealing and hiding the inner thoughts of different characters to suit his own needs, which just seems clumsy.
The main character, Ben, is whiny and bad tempered (apparently forgetting that he's in his mid-20's, not early teens), leaving conversations, when they displease him. Also, his plans seem less than well thought out, and really, he should be smarter than the reader, not the other way around.
Which brings me to the crook, not-Rick, who does a decent job of being a creepy and all-knowing man of the shadows, until he apparently forgets the very dramatic increase in penalty between black mail and kidnapping/murder, and in a whirl of panic kidnaps three of our entrepid wannabe sleuths. To top it of, he even tells Ben to not run off, or he'll kill one of his friends, then runs out of the oom, leaving Ben and his friend alone and the door wide open. Come on, Mr. Meltzer, what is up with the rapid decrease in not-Rick's IQ?
I'm not well versed in political thrillers, but someone outthere must be doing a much better job. I really hope so.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 LiT (I read the novel in Danish: "Den tiende dommer")
Task total: 40 pts
Grand total: 85 pts
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
My Name Is Red (other topics)Pop Goes the Weasel (other topics)
Generation Chef: Risking It All for a New American Dream (other topics)
Signs of Attraction (other topics)
In Our Own Hands: Essays in Deaf History, 1780�1970 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Orhan Pamuk (other topics)James Patterson (other topics)
Karen Stabiner (other topics)
Laura Brown (other topics)
Sara Nović (other topics)
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20.4 Go for the Gold!
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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+20 Task (Russia)
+5 Combo (10.4-Darkest)
+10 Canon
+10 LiT
+10 Review
Post Total: 55
Season Total: 240
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