Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

10.5 Elderly

Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" by Margaret Powell

Review: What a fun read! This is a book that helped inspire shows like Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey, and since I'm a Downton devotee it ended up on my reading list.

Margaret Powell (née Langley) was born in 1907 to a poor family in Hove, England. At age thirteen, despite a scholarship opportunity to continue her schooling, financial circumstances forced her to find work, and a year later she entered domestic service as a kitchen maid. Her memoir focuses on the time spent in the kitchens of various homes, where, despite her quick rise to the coveted position of cook, she never felt truly satisfied or respected.

Powell is a woman who, if born in another time or into another class, may have done any number of things. An avid reader, she remained curious, never ceasing to question the way the world worked. Her no-nonsense conversational style is at times amusing (especially when she speaks of sex, which she does throughout the book), at others keenly insightful, and much of the time both. Ultimately, I think she ended up getting what she wanted for herself and her family, even if it happened later than she'd have preferred. She left service when she married, her sons got the educations she was denied as a child, and then she herself completed additional schooling as a woman in her fifties and sixties. This memoir was a hit and continues to inspire producers of current-day pop culture, so she even got some of the respect she was certainly due.

+10 Task
+5 Oldies (published 1968)
+10 Review

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1965 (includes +15 adjustment by switching Thinking Fast and Slow - post 809 - from 10.5 to 20.8 for extra points plus multiple bonus)

20.8 - Veteran Authors
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

One of the aspects I enjoyed about Lolita is the awareness that it is a narration. I was fascinated by Humbert's self-analysis. To me, it felt like the character was offering the reader "explanations" of why/how he was what he was. However, at the same time he was undermining the explanation by posing it as a rhetorical question and answer.

Nabokov depicted Humbert as an unreliable narrator -- the story we are reading is framed as Humbert's defense statement. Clearly Humbert has a motive to present his story with a particular bias. So, we are only shown his version of events. At times it is an an exaggerated/distorted version of reality, dropping hints that he was delusional, paranoid, etc. But if the narration is a defense statement, it throws into question the reliability of the presentation of Humbert's paranoia....

I was also fascinated by how Nabokov's use of language allows me to either gloss over the horrific acts or be completely creeped out. On the page, it is much easier to lose the acts in the beauty of the language (my first reading many years ago), but listening to a fantastic audio version by J. Irons, the meaning and emotion conveyed by intonations overpowers the language (and his Humbert really creeped me out).

Overall, the book made me question the nature of fiction -- we use stories to make sense of the world and to create a reality we believe is "true" -- but Lolita demonstrates that you can never know what it true; you can't know what really happened or why someone is the way they are.

+20 task
+10 review
+5 multiple
+5 oldies

Task Total: 40 points
Grand Total: 570 points

20.8 - Veteran Authors
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

+20 task
+5 combo (10.3 - Garfunkel)
+5 multiple
+10 oldies (pub. 1934)

Task total: 40 points
Grand Total: 610 points

10.5 - Elderly

The Humbling by Philip Roth

+10 Task (On page 2, the main character, Simon Axler, is said to be "already in his sixties.")
+ 5 Combo (20.8 veteran author)
+ 5 Multiple

Task total=20
Grand total=900

15.9 Know Your ABCs

Letter U, published 1956

Exodus by Leon Uris

+30 Task
Season Total: 2090

15.8 - 8th book - letter H

The Goodbye Body by Joan Hess -- published 2005 (this listing doesn't include the original pub date for some reason but this one The Goodbye Body does)

+30 Task

Grand Total: 600 points

20.8 - Veteran's Day

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

+20 task (DuPrau published Adoption: The Facts, Feelings, and Issues of a Double Heritage in 1981 and The Diamond of Darkhold in 2008)

Task Total: 20 points
Grand total 620

Leigh wrote: "20.7 Women of Achievement
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
+20 task
+15 Combo 10.2 (Canadian Born author), 10.9 (book 2 of the MadAddam Trilogy, book 3 is not yet published), 20.8 (publishe..."

Sorry, 10.9 is not a combo-able task.

10.4 - Celebrate Fall

Round the Red Lamp by Arthur Conan Doyle

+10 Task
+10 Combo (20.3 short stories; 20.8 - Veteran author)
+10 Oldies (15 stories published between 1890 and 1894 )

Task total=30
Grand total=930

That's it for me.

20.8 - Veteran Author
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

This book was chosen for my real-life book club and, unfortunately, I read it at about the same time as a goodreads group was discussing Lolita. Like Nabokov, Banks chose to write about one of the most heinous crimes in modern society -- pedophilia. Unlike Nabokov, Banks' protagonist is easy to emphasize with. Banks' focus is the societal construct of desire and criminality, and his novel portrays a confused young man (somewhat) wronged by circumstances. The other main character, the professor, is at first fascinating. However, as the story is told from the professor's view, his self-analysis is presented in the language of pop-psychology and I was left feeling that Banks isn't smart enough to write an individual as smart as the professor was supposed to be.

+20 task
+10 review
+5 multiple

Task total: 35 points
Grand Total: 645 points

(Sorry Kate for posting this month's reading so late).

Congratulations on a great challenge, everyone! I just finished up my final book.

10.8 - Rosemary’s Task � Lucky Sevens

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

My husband has shared his love and respect for the work of Edward Curtis and the west he photographed throughout our marriage. We have some of his prints in our home as well as two paintings that incorporate his photos. When our children were young, we traveled through 6 western states visiting many of the sites described in this survey of the photographer’s struggle to photograph the native people of the west before they were overrun by white culture. I can’t describe in words the beauty of Canyon de Chelly. We traveled to the bottom of the canyon by jeep with a Navajo guide who told the story of her people. It is the most awe inspiring place I have had the privilege to visit. Egan writes in an engaging narrative style and includes many of the photographs that Curtis took as he tried to preserve our knowledge of Native culture. Highly recommended!

+10 Task: B - 7 letters in authors first name: Timothy
+10 Review
Task total: 20

Grand Final Total: 2095

15.10 Know Your ABCs

Letter V, published 1959

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut YA: 980

+45 Task
+200 Doctorate Completion Bonus

Season Total: 2335

Liz M wrote: "(Sorry Kate for posting this month's reading so late)...."

No worries, I am expecting the final Readerboard to go up on Sunday. I hope everyone has an opportunity to post their final tasks and get their last minute reading counted. :)

Well, I was semi-hoping to finish one more book before midnight...but I made the utterly foolish decision to go out with friends. What was I thinking -- and on the last night of a challenge?!?! :)

Great challenge, and thank you moderators for running it so smoothly.

10.2 Oktoberfest

Endgame by Ann Aguirre

Review: The previous book in this series left me utterly in tears, so I have to admit to reading the last two pages of this one before beginning. I just had to make sure there was some resolution! And there was. I'm sad to see the story end - this is the sixth book in the Sirantha Jax series - but I think Aguirre finished at what might be just the right place. Most of the major plot lines, both political and personal, have been resolved in some manner, but the characters still very much feel as though they're still out there causing trouble.

This series hits a lot of good notes for me; it's a action- and romance- filled science fiction story, but it also hits many real issues regarding morality, politics, society, love, and tolerance. The main characters are, for the most part, seriously broken, but they find ways to make each other whole. My favorite relationship may not actually even be the romance Jax has, but her friendships. I'll miss these guys, but I'm sure Ann Aguirre will continue to write other series I'll love just as much.

+10 Task (author born in USA, which I only claimed as a combo before)
+5 Combo (Sirantha has a couple of conversations with other women about various aspects of the war, including one regarding medicine she has with Farah)
+10 Review

Task Total: 25
Final Grand Total: 2005 (includes +15 adjustment by switching Capital - post 288 - from 10.2 to 20.7 for extra points plus multiple bonus)

And that's me done! I had fun with this first season - thanks everyone :)

Y'all are an amazing group of readers. Thank you for participating & I hope you've had as much fun as I have.

On to the next reading challenge!

Changes to score made since the end of the challenge:

Post 1129: Marie, The Hobbit does not qualify for 10.07-not published in the 2000s

Melanie
Post 106 -5 Combo for 10.03 Misery not on Art's list

Eleanor
Post 127 +5 Combo for 10.03 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Isabell
Post 256 -5 Combo Black Coffee 10.08C claimed in Post 51
Post 1139 +100 RwS Finisher
Post 1142 - 20 The Thief Lord was posted in post 1017

Louise
Post 582 -5 Combo Small Vices 10.08C claimed in Post 557

Marie
Post 849 -5 Combo White Tiger 10.08B claim in Post 812

Kate S
Post 1044 +5 Combo Rabbit Redux for 20.08

Rebekah
Post 1100 -5 Combo Bleak House 10.08B previously claimed

Norma
Post 1141 +5 Combo Sidetracked for 20.08

D
Post 1144 +5 Combo Crazy Horse for 20.08

Cory (Bigler)
Post 809 +5 Multiple

D
Post 1132 +5 Multiple

Karen
Post 1114 +5 Multiple
Post 1119 +5 Multiple