Reading with Style discussion
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SP 2017 Completed Tasks
15.7 AotD Time TravelerSeeker by Jack McDevitt
2006 Nebula Award Winner
Task total: 15
Grand total: 750
Task 10.3 English LanguageGirl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
+10 Task (UK{Scotland})
+5 Combo (10.2- 3, 4, 5)
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 90
10.2 3, 4, or 5The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal
Nina Siegal's novel transports us to 17th Century Amsterdam where Rembrandt has received a commission to paint members of the Surgeon's Guild observing the anatomist Dr Nicholaes Tulp. There are six important characters who each have chapters named after the part of the body that they represent. "The Body" is Adriaen, a thief who has been condemned to die by hanging. "The Mouth" is Jan Fetchet, a collector of curiosities who also acquires bodies for medical dissection. "The Hands" refers to Dr Tulp who will be dissecting the body. "The Mind" is Rene Descartes, the philosopher who is trying to determine where the soul resides. Flora, the woman who loves the condemned Adriaen and who carries his unborn child, is "The Heart". The artist Rembrandt, the painter of the masterpiece "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp" represents "The Eyes". There are also a few chapters where a 21st Century art historian/conservator, tells us the secrets that x-rays reveal about the painting.
Scenes from everyday life to the mobs at the hanging seem very real and well researched. Both the novel and Rembrandt's painting show the humanity of Adreaen who had been abused as a child. Adreaen had scars from whippings, brands burned into his skin, and his right hand cut off as punishments for thefts. But Rembrandt painted him with compassion, showing death with dignity, with his scars removed, in the center of the luminous painting. This novel is recommended to art lovers and readers who enjoy historical fiction.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 500
10.3 English LanguageJoseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
review
I admit I may be in a very irritable mood because this very morally righteous tale (despite all the humours) makes me want to bash my head against the wall. I couldn’t stand the main characters for their constant virtue and instead sympathise with the scorned & rather loose-minded lady. Even as we are meant to aspire to these virtuous characters, I prefer in being able to identify with faulty characters. The in-between segues are also filled with moral lessons which I do not care for! The humorous incidents were the only part I like about this book though at times, I do wonder if the author is overdoing it. The happy ending only serves to heighten my nausea.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.10)
+10 Review
+10 Canon
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 710
10.2 3, 4, or 5El color de la granada by Carla Badillo Coronado
Task +10
Non-Western + 10
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 70
15.10 AotD 1991-1982 Time TravelerDifferent Prizes
A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller
1982 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award
task = 15
oldie=5
not a novel (play)= 5
Time Traveler completion bonus = 100
task total= 125
grand total= 1020
15.10 AotD TravellerSaturday by Ian McEwan
2005 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction
+ 15 Task
+100 Traveler Finish
Task Total = 115
Grand total = 675
20.7 #AWW2017Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan
+20 Task
+5 Jumbo 553 pages
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 645
15.1 AotDBobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee
+15 task (2013 Believer Book Award)
+5 Not-a-novel
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 110
15.7 AotD Time TravelerAgatha Award Best First Novel (1988-1997)
Do Unto Others by Jeff Abbott
Won the award in 1994.
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
10.6 Spring EquinoxMy Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Review:
This is a book set in Istanbul (Turkey) during the 16th century and is about the artists that painted the miniature paintings that decorated the books of that time.
Although the book has no illustrations, much of the text describes the miniatures that were created, so that the reader has a picture of the miniature in mind at any one time running through that part of the story.
The text tells the story of two murders, a search for the murderer, and a love that once had been thwarted but now was realized, although not as satisfactory to the two parties as the imagination would have promised.
+ 10 Task
+ 10 Combo (10.2, 20.6 - 32,008 & 3.82)
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 30
10.8 Beth's Task: AnthologyHome Improvement: Undead Edition by Charlaine Harris among others
Review:
Oh my gosh, this was a fun book! It seems (from the intro) that Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have had fun inviting quite a list of authors to write stories involving paranormal characters who are in the midst of home improvement. And, what creative stories have resulted! And, for those of us who loved and mourned the end of the Sookie Stackhouse stories, there is a new one in this book.
One of the stories that grabbed my interest was the story of the Wizard Home Security by Victor Gischler. This story tells the tale of a wizard who has a burglary and has engaged a home security system...and all goes awry in the most delightful way...but all comes out alright in the end. What fun!
And then there is the story of the house that sits on the border between Reality and the Elf world. It is supposed to be a house of refuge for those of both worlds but the governments of both worlds decide to require that the new owners make changes...which threatens the house. Will the new owners give up and leave? Hmmm...
+ 10 Task (Anthologies - 147 users)
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 20
BTW, although Charlaine Harris is listed as an author for this anthology - and on the 20.5 list -, I did not claim points for Combo, since she was only one of quite a few contributors to this book. Was that correct?
20.7 Aussie Woman WriterThe Lake House by Kate Morton
I have enjoyed Kate Morton's books in the past, so I was taken aback by the difficulty I had with the plot jumping around (and dragging here and there). Apparently, I wasn't the only one if you look at the GR reviews for this book. This was a minor issue for the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book.
Overall, I liked the characters (which were well developed), the 'mystery' and the settings. I definitely did become invested in the story. However, I did not like the ending: it was too pat and felt like a 'Hollywood' ending; and it came on WAY too fast (less than 20 pages after more than 400 of building the story). 3*
20 task
5 combo 10.2
10 review
_____
35
Running total: 635
15.8 AotDTime Traveller | 1 Award
The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island by Chloe Hooper
Winner of Davitt Award for True Crime 2009
+15 Task
+5 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 730
10.3 English LanguageAfter Youby Jojo Moyes
Review
This is the sequel to "Me Before You". I liked this book as much as the prequel. Louisa Clark tries to move on with her life. She travels to Paris, gets a job in a bar but eventually moves back home. She tries to follow Will's advice to live life to the fullest. She works a crappy job at a bar in the airport. While on the roof of her flat, she falls off and gets rushed to the hospital. After she recovers, she joins a grief counsel group. Indirectly through the grief group, she meets a guy, He possibly could be a the man of her dreams if she allows herself to take the chance. Also to complicate her life, Louisa meets a girl who can be Will's daughter. Seeing the girl is in trouble, Louisa tries to help her.
Task + 10
Review+ 10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 175
20.2 RebeccaThe Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Task +20
Jumbo +5: 642 pages
Task Total 25
Season Total: 115
20.6My Name is RedPale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
+20 Task (30,057 ratings, avg 4.19)
+10 Canon
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 675
Task 10.2 3, 4, or 5Across a Billion Years (1969) by Robert Silverberg (Paperback, 250 pages)
Review:Robert Silverberg writes science fiction and fantasy novels. The premise of this one: a multi-species scientific team of archeologists are working on an archeological dig on a planet many light-years from Earth. There are 11 archeologists, 6 human, 4 alien, and 1 sentient female android. The novel is told as a series of letters written by a young man (from context, aged 19-22) to his twin sister on Earth. (He’s collecting the “message cubes� and will present them to his sister when he sees her a few years from now.) The pluses: aliens who have different priorities than humans; the description of scientific discovery; and the uber-optimistic ending. The minuses: not really original � there must be dozens of science fiction novels about a small group of scientists making huge paradigm-shifting discoveries; and, most gratingly, the treatment in the novel of the young woman on the team � she’s such a pal, she doesn’t mind (view spoiler). She’s also in charge of making sure all the guys get the credit for the discoveries, and of smoothing out all ego conflicts (because, of course, SHE doesn’t need an ego). Grrr. Overall, Silverberg has written better, more original novels than this one. I’d start with one of those (Tower of Glass, Nightwings, Shadrach in the Furnace, The Last Song of Orpheus or Dying Inside)
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 530 + 20 = 550
15.1 AotD (2nd Round)All Pultizers for Drama:
1923-1932
Time Traveler
Icebound by Owen Gould Davis
task = 15
oldie=5
not a novel (play)= 5
task total= 25
grand total= 1045
From Post 612Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.2 3, 4, or 5
Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird
In the last few years I have developed a fascination with C..."
+5 Combo 20.5
From post 625Bea wrote: "10.6 Spring Equinox
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Review:
This is a book set in Istanbul (Turkey) during the 16th century and is about the artists that painted the mi..."
+10 Non-Western
Kate S wrote: "From post 625Bea wrote: "10.6 Spring Equinox
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
+10 Non-Western "
I wondered about that; Wikipedia said that Turkey was partly in Asia and partly in Europe. Since I was not sure where Istanbul fell, I left it off my points. Thanks.
20.5 FoundationA Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
" A Tale for the Time Being" was one of my favorite books of 2013, and I enjoyed reading it again for a book discussion. While walking on an island beach in British Columbia, Ruth found a barnacle-encrusted plastic bag containing a lunchbox with a diary, a bunch of letters, and a watch inside. She and her husband theorize that it might have been caught up in the ocean currents traveling from Japan after the 2011 tsunami.
The diary has been crafted from an old copy of Proust's "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu" (In Search of Lost Time), and time is a strong theme throughout the book. The book explores teenage bullying, suicide, Zen philosophy, quantum mechanics, Japanese culture, and historic events. I loved Ruth Ozeki's creative storytelling and interesting characters.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 530
20.3 EvictedSo You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
Shelved as 'Current-Events' 15 times
review
I am rather ashamed to admit that I’m not at all familiar with all the public shaming cases he’s mentioned in the book! That’s how up-to-date I am with current events which is not at all but then again I don’t particularly like these type of news. If I’d see these headlines, I may either skip it or just lightly skim the article. As a stereotypical Asian woman, I hate confrontation and I’d just die if I was ever publicly shamed. Most of the Shamees reacted pretty much like I would have� life utterly destroyed though some others (not many), maybe it’s got to do with personality as well (?), went through pretty much unscathed. The scary thing is that you don’t have to have been famous or a well-known figure, you could’ve been any person going through your daily life and usual jokes when it suddenly just spiralled out of control from misperceived and/or unintended offence. This just reminds me why exactly I rarely ever post my opinions on controversial subjects or crass jokes on any social medias and I’m on quite a number of them!
"The sad thing is that Lindsay had incurred the internet's wrath because she was impudent and playful and foolhardy and outspoken and now here she was working� to reduce herself to safe banalities� we were creating a world where the smartest thing to do is to be bland"
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2 - 5 words; 10.3 - born in UK; 20.6 - avg 3.91 & 25,650 ratings)
+10 Review
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 775
10.2 - 3,4,5The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine
Jenny is working in a care home for the elderly and builds a special bond with Stella, an old lady who has secrets. Stella gives Jenny the keys to a house that nobody knows she owns. Jenny goes there and finds everything exactly as it was as if somebody just went out and left it twenty years ago, down to the fridge contents (eww).
Jenny is stuck in a boring marriage until someone else walks into her life. Meanwhile, Stella is beginning to tell her what happened all those years ago. Their lives have many parallels, as we move forward with Jenny and back in time with Stella.
I’d read this before but I didn’t remember very much. In fact I think I may have been mostly remembering the wrong book! I didn’t find it riveting this time. I gave it 4 stars because it’s interesting and well-written, but it’s not a real page-turner of a mystery.
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.3)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 725
10.3 English LanguageThe Worst Witch by Jill Murphy
I chose to read this because it is on the 1000 Children's Books You Should Read Before You Grow Up list. I was surprised that it had a Lexile score of 890. Having read the book, I'm really surprised it has that Lexile score... it seems to be aimed at a very young audience.
Anyway, I think J.K. Rowling must have assuredly have read this book (and perhaps the entire series) before writing her Harry Potter books. (This was published in 1974.) The book depicts a student witch, Mildred. She is clumsy and forgetful...and unlucky. She mistakenly turns a classmate into a pig...and thereby creating an enemy. And that enemy is set on revenge. Will she be successful? Well, there are six books in the series...perhaps that is a clue to the answer.
task= 10
review= 10
combo= 5 (10.2)
task total= 25
grand total= 1090
10.4 International Question DayThe Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
+10 task
+10 Canon
+10 combos (10.2, 20.7)
Tsk Total = 30
Grand Total = 290
AotD - Time Leaper, Single award15.1 The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Audie Awards 2015 - Winner of the Paranormal category
+15 task
Task Total = 15
Grand Total = 305
AotD - Time Leaper, Single award15.2 The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue
Audi Awards 2012 - Winner of the Solo Narration - Male category
+15 task
+5 Not A Novel
Task total = 20
Grand Total = 325
Task 10.2 3, 4, or 5A Colony in a Nation (2017) by Christopher L. Hayes (Hardcover, 256 pages) [364.973]
Review:Chris Hayes is the host of a news program on MSNBC called “All In with Chris Hayes� which airs around here Monday through Friday from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM. This is his second non-fiction book. Mr. Hayes was the reporter on the scene in August 2014 at the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, that occurred after the shooting death of Michael Brown. Later, he did reporting from Baltimore, Maryland after a similar incident. He wrote this book in an attempt to understand why low-income urban African Americans think about the police, and about “law and order� the way they do. His conclusion: “There are two systems in one: the Nation, the place that makes all the rules, where the "citizens" live (aka white/upper class people), and the Colony, where the "subjects" (aka black/poor people) live.� The later part of the book is Mr. Hayes� explanation why he believes this is so, personal anecdotes, and concluding with a "can't we all just get along" appeal. Recommended for readers interested in reading about current events from an ideological point of view.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 550 + 20 = 570
20.7 #AWW2017The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
Thirty-three-year-old Missy lives with her impoverished widowed mother and crippled aunt on the edge of the town of Byron. The town was founded by Missy's great-grandfather Hurlingford, and their system of inheritance favors the males in the family. Missy is considered a plain spinster always dressed in drab brown dresses. Then a new librarian introduces her to romantic novels, and Missy longs for romance and a more exciting life. When handsome John Smith buys property nearby, Missy thinks he may be the answer to her dreams.
The beginning of this short novel is fun and filled with social satire. But it disintegrates with a silly feud between Missy and her cousin, and a relationship based on lies between John and Missy. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.2
+10 review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 565
10.3 English LanguageThe Power by Naomi Alderman
+10 Task (London, UK)
Points this post: 10
RwS total: 320
AotD total: 15
Season Total: 335
edited only to correct Season Total from 355 to 335
Task 15.8Spur Award for Best Novel (1979)
(note: I'm going to be doing all Spur Award, sequentially, 1972-1981)
The Holdouts (1979) by William Decker
+15 Task
+05 Oldies (published before 1992)
Task Total: 15 + 05 = 20
Grand Total: 570 + 20 = 590
15.2 AotD - Time TravelerThe Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day
+15 Task (Anthony Award 2015)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 380
20.9 National Doctor's Day What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear by Danielle Ofri
This is the second book by Ofri that I've read and though it felt very similar to the other one (What Doctors Feel), I still enjoyed it. She blends personal clinical experiences, stories of other doctors and patients, and research to dig into different aspects of doctor-patient communication. I find it a fascinating topic because as a teacher, I recognize parallels with ways I communicate with students, and also, of course, as a former ER and House junkie, because I can't get enough of strange medical cases! I would recommend this to anyone who likes medical lit -- it's well written and interesting and delivers exactly what is promised in the title.
+20 task
+5 combo (10.4)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 415
15.2 AotD (2nd Round)1924
1923-1932
Time Traveler
All Pultizers for Drama:
Hell-Bent fer Heaven by Hatcher Hughes
task = 15
oldie=5
not a novel (play)= 5
task total= 25
grand total= 1115
20.8 Yours, Mine, and Ours A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King
What a great collection for anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes, or even a good mystery! I was so thrilled to find this - so thanks for the task! Some of the reviews I read weren't positive because they felt the stories were just straight retellings -- and perhaps if I knew the canon as well as others, I'd feel the same way. But as a casual Holmes fan, I loved the book. Some of the stories stood out, of course - I enjoyed Alan Bradley's contribution a lot, as well as S.J. Rozan's, Thomas Perry's, and Jacqueline Winspear's. Overall, a great read for mystery lovers.
+20 task
+10 combo (10.2, 10.8)
+10 review
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 455
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Letters to the End of Love (other topics)Made in the U.S.A. (other topics)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (other topics)
The Goldfinch (other topics)
The Boy on the Bridge (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Yvette Walker (other topics)Billie Letts (other topics)
Arthur Conan Doyle (other topics)
Donna Tartt (other topics)
M.R. Carey (other topics)
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Time Traveller | 1 Award
Ladykiller: How Conman Bruce Burrell Kidnapped and Killed Rich Women for Their Money by Candace Sutton, Ellen Connolly
Winner of Davitt Award for True Crime 2010
+15 Task
+5 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 675