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FA 2015 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2015
TtUS Sample Post 15.7 - TtUS Land Cruiser
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
set in Alabama
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 210
(This assumes the post is mid-challenge and you previously posted 185 points)
10.1 AuthorsBeing Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Will possibly move if this qualifies for a task that hasn't been posted yet.
Review:. An excellent, thought-provoking and kind of scary read for those of us in the senior category. The scary part was the description of how aging impacts us. Gawande looks at end of life medicine and care. The history was very interesting. I had not realized that the reason my grandmothers ended up in nursing homes is because in the 1960s and 70s there wasn't much in the way of other options when their care overwhelmed family resources. The author finds a compassionate and practical way of discussing decisions with terminally ill patients and their loved ones. He tells the stories of how the thought process worked with his patients as well as friends and lastly his own father. He also explains how his experience and research has changed his practice of medicine.
I was going to say I recommend this to those with aging parents and those who are themselves feeling the effects of aging, but, actually, I think everyone should read it because we all will watch loved ones die and we ourselves will be there sooner or later.
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand Total: 30
15.1 Travel in the US (Land Cruiser)Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz
Hawaii
15 task
____
15
Running total: 15
20.2 InnocenceThe Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker
+20 task (published 2009, died 2010)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 20
20.1-Celebration! The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
1st published 2007. YA, Lexile 600.
+20 task
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 20
20.2 InnocenceThousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
I've given this 3 stars, because my feelings are a little mixed on this one. I enjoyed it, but I found it hard to warm to the main character, and the other characters were tainted by his perspective of them. Kikuji seems to be a very repressed character, keeping his emotional life in check since the death of his parents. Is his resistance to the tea ceremony the symbol of his resistance to life ? Were Kurimoto's intentions good, or was she just a meddlesome and bitter old woman ?
The style was simple and very easy to read, but I just felt that there was something missing the whole time I was reading it, and that there was a certain flatness to the text, which I am taking as the repression of feeling.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
+10 combo (10.2 & 10.4)
Task Total = 45
Grand Total = 45
20.1 Celebration!The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
Review: I always forget how much I love Julia Quinn until I pick up one of her books. This is the first in a new-to-me series, and it was just what I needed. The heroine, Miranda, has been in love with Turner since she was 10 and he was 19, but it’s not until his unfaithful, awful wife dies that he comes back into her life as an adult. The romance itself was predictable and might have stood a little more emotional impact, but I love the “best friend’s big brother now sees me as something more” trope. Miranda reminded me a lot of myself, which is something I love in a romance novel heroine – it makes it even easier to fall into the story.
+20 Task (published 2007)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 30
10.1 AuthorDeath and Forgiveness by Jindra Tichá
Review:
Anna has just buried her mother in Prague when her son calls with the news that her ex-husband Jan committed suicide. She and Jan were academics who had left communist Czechoslovakia in 1968 to live in New Zealand. The book alternates between the past and the present as Anna and her daughter fly back home and make arrangements for the funeral. In the past thread in 1968, as Jan and Anna travel by ocean liner to New Zealand, she tells of the difficulties living under the communist regime, her fears of starting a new life, and the problems in their marriage. In the chapters set in the present, Anna is dealing with the stress and grief of losing someone she cared for. She also feels hurt and angry since Jan had left her for a younger woman.
Written in the first person, the story appears to be a fictionalized memoir. Many details in the book are similar to the lives of Jindra Ticha and her deceased husband Pavel Tichy who both lectured at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Although Ticha has published extensively in her native language, this is her first novel written in English. It's probably very difficult to write in a second language, and her writing has a stiff formal quality to it. Perhaps the heaviness comes because there is little dialogue, and she rarely uses contractions in her sentences. I found it especially interesting to read about the challenging times in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. The character Anna expressed well how multi-faceted her feelings could be, processing both a death and a failed marriage.
+10 task (never read this author before)
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 20
20.10 Interconnectedafter the quake by Haruki Murakami
+20 task (stories mentioning the Kobe earthquake)
+5 combo (10.9 – post 97)
+10 Not-a Novel (short stories)
Task total: 35
Grand Total: 55
10.3 DictionaryThe Vacationers by Emma Straub
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 – post 118)
Task total = 15
Points total = 15
20.10 - InterconnectedFord County by John Grisham
+20 task (short stories all set in ford county)
+5 combo (10.9 post 44)
+10 not-a-novel (short stories
Task total: 35
Grand total: 35
10.10 - Group ReadsOur Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 post 39)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 50
10.4 - MathsThe Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
+10 task
+10 combo (10.7- 9 times, 10.9 - post 13
+15 oldies (1844)
+10 jumbo (786 pages)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 95
20.9 Authors with Three NamesTail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
+20 task
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 75
10.9 Six Degrees of Kevin BaconWind/Pinball: Two Novels by Haruki Murakami
My first book by Haruki Murakami was A Wild Sheep Chase, a choice for a face to face book group I joined at the local Borders store. I had never read anything quite like it before and I loved my first foray into his work. I’ve since read most of his work but not Hear the Wind Blow and Pinball because, alas, I couldn’t find them in English. What a joy it was when I saw they were coming out and what a great reading experience it was! It wasn’t because these two short books were polished and excellent. They were first efforts, but every once in a while, Murakami’s style would shine right through. There would be a certain turn of a phrase or description of a scene or bit of dialog (the scenes with the twins, especially) that would foreshadow the brilliance to come. That’s what I loved about finally having a chance to read the beginning of the story of The Rat. I’m eager to re-read A Wild Sheep Chase with this new introduction to the character!
+10 Task: Approved Author Post #97
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies: 1979
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 25
10.9 Six DegreesThe Cairo Affair from Olen Steinhauer
(This is also my one book that I am allowed to use that I started reading before Sep/1 - I was only 20% in)
----
This was my third book from Olen, and it was the one I liked the least so far. The background and location are represented immaculate and convincing, as always, and the characters are very real and human. What I found less strong is the story and reasoning behind it, it seems hard to believe and a bit far fetched. Not that I wouldn't believe (view spoiler) - I mean the appropriateness of the reaction of the affected people seems doubtful. That galled my reading pleasure towards the end. I also found the story a bit convoluted and difficult to follow. So, still good stuff, but only four stars.
----
+10 6 Degrees (post 144)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 20
(let me know if I am doing this not right - this is my first such post)
10.9 Six DegreesFood: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
“Overweight people have chosen food over appearance. When a fat person talks about a great place to get a burger, I lean in. They know.”
I'm a huge fan of Jim Gaffigan's humor. Really, he's the only comedian I can think of who doesn't rely on foul language or sexual innuendo to get a laugh. Strike that--Ellen Degeneres's stand-up would fit that category. And maybe Demetri Martin. But I digress...
Jim Gaffigan is a big and tall guy known for his food humor, first finding notoriety with his "Hot Pockets" routine. He's not afraid to make fun of himself and his unabashed love of food. I listened to this book, read by the author, and felt like I was being treated to my own personal stand-up show for 6+ hours. I would laugh out loud on the train and people would look at me like I was crazy. Which I am--crazy for Jim Gaffigan.
+10 Task (Kevin Bacon was in Stir of Echoes with Kathryn Erbe who was in Entropy with Jim Gaffigan who wrote this book)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 30
Task 10.4 – MathThe Seven Daughters of Eve: The 카지노싸이트 That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry (2001) by Bryan Sykes (Hardcover, 320 pages)
Review
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel: Non-fiction
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 00 + 20 = 20
Task 10.4 - Math206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
Review (my very first review ever!)
----
206 Bones is another book in Kathy Reichs' mystery series set in the realm of forensic anthropology. My feelings about this one are split - on the one hand, it was interesting and gripping, and well written; the characters have depth and complexity, as usual for her. On the other hand, I found part of the solution too simple to see - I was already quite convinced to have a guilty party recognized about halfway through, which is presumably not intended (which made me rate it down from 4 to 3 stars).
Personally, I like the educational component of her books; you can learn a lot about bones, death, and medical details, although the explanations are often not well woven in the story, they stick rather obviously out as being addressed to the reader. Still, if this doesn't bother you, it is a nice read.
----
+10 Task 10.4
+10 Review
+5 combo 10.9 (6 degrees of Bacon, post 175)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 10 + 25 = 35
10.9 Six DegreesEtta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Review:
Etta left a letter for her husband Otto: "I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. Don't worry, I've left you the truck. I can walk. I will try to remember to come back."
This charming story about three octogenarians had me turning the pages, hoping that Etta would fulfill her wish as she walked 3,200 km to the ocean. The book looks back at them growing up on the dry dusty farms of Saskatchewan, Russell's childhood injury, Etta teaching in a one-room schoolhouse, and Otto's terrible wartime experiences. Otto, Etta, and Russell were very devoted to each other. When Etta left on her walk it prompted both Otto and Russell to also experience something new and different in their lives. The flashbacks seem very realistic, but their present experiences seem more symbolic as they act on their unrealized dreams.
James is a magical surprise conjured up by Etta's foggy mind, and he helps her reach her destination. With a bit of magical realism at the conclusion, identities shift and merge as they float between the present and the past, and between reality and a dream. Delightful!
+10 task (Approved, post 147)
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 40
10.2 Agatha ChristieThe Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie
(This was probably not intended in the rules, but I am going to try - Agatha certainly completely lived within her own birth and death years)
+5 Combo 10.9 (Six Degrees of Bacon, message 182)
+5 Combo 20.2 (Innocence, 1958, Agatha died in 1976)
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 35 + 20 = 55
(this was declined because the book is not from Agatha Christie, she wrote a play and Charles Humfrey Caufield Osborne novelized it. I have re-posted under #254 for a different Task)
20.6 RatingsThe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Girl on the Train was exactly what a good mystery should be: a fast-paced story that keeps you guessing and even when you think you've figured it out, you can't believe you could possibly be right. It is told from the point of view of three different women and hops back and forth in time, making the reader (well, *this* reader, at least) feel slightly unbalanced--but in the best way, the way that lays the groundwork for confusing the reader enough that they just have to hold on for the ride instead of giving them mental space enough to worry about working out whodunit. The one thing I will say is that in most books I read, I feel sympathetic towards or identify with at least one character...I did not like any of the characters in this book. I would cross the street to avoid every single one of them.
+20 Task (currently has 307,141 ratings)
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 60
15.1 TtUS - Land CruiserSomething Borrowed by Emily Giffin
New York
Task total: 15 pts
Grand total: 15 pts
10.2 ChristieFive Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
This Hercule Poirot mystery was a little bit different to the others that I have read so far, in that he is trying to solve / overturn a case that occurred some 16 years previous, whereas he would normally, by some chance, seem to be on the scene of the crime involved, or called in by one of the accused / relations to the victim.
It was told via interviews with the other participants from the time of the murder, and written remembrances from each, which teaches one that there is no truth and all perspectives are different.
I have to say, I did not solve the mystery and my hunches were wrong. That Hercule Poirot! He surprises me every time!
+10 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
+15 combos ( 10.3, 10,4, 10.9 - approved post 123)
Task Total = 40
Grand Total = 85
10.2 Agatha ChristieEast Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck
+10 task (1892 – 1973)
+10 Oldies (pub 1929)
Task total: 20
Grand Total: 95
20.2-InnocenceHam on Rye by Charles Bukowski
+20 task (pub. 1982, died 1994)
+15 combo (10.3 h-o-r; 10.6 born in Germany; 10.9 post 50)
+ 5 oldies
Task total=40
Grand total=40
10.7 - Librivox - Eleanor's TaskThe Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed The Three Musketeers, a 5 star read for me. I'm sorry I'd passed this over for so long, having little interest in the swashbuckling movies my husband loves, including the movies made of this story. However, I read The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, the true story of Dumas' father. Finding that interesting, I read Dumas' The Black Tulip and found I really liked his writing style. After that, Dumas' other books were added to my TBR list.
Adding to my enjoyment of the book is that I read it as a Buddy Read with a 카지노싸이트 friend in Australia. It was fun to share comments each day on what we had read. Parts are quite funny, the fight scenes actually quite interesting, women weren't treated as we would want to be, and the various characters all had quirks we discussed. I look forward to reading more books by Alexandre Dumas!
+10 task
+10 combo (10.4-Math "Three" & 10.9-Kevin Bacon, message #13)
+10 Review
+15 oldies (1844)
+10 jumbo (786 pages)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 55
10.1 - AuthorMy Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
It took me a while to get into this - and by a while, I mean I didn't become consumed by it until I was almost 3/4 of the way through! - but once it starting working for me, it really started working. My goodreads feed has been blowing up about Elena Ferrante for a while, so I finally caved and checked it out from the library - I needed to understand the hype. It's a story set in Naples in the mid-twentieth century, and is focused on the friendship between Lila and Lenu, starting when they were very young children and taking the reader through the tumultuous years of puberty and the early teenage years.
Part of the difficulty, for me, of getting into this book was that it's kind of about everything and nothing all at once. Its focus on the day to day is both tedious and captivating, because what else is there to life than a culmination of days? I finished this book last night and I already miss these characters. I can't wait to pick up The Story of a New Name and see what happens to these brilliant friends!
+10 task
+10 review
task total: 20
grand total: 20
Post 23 Will wrote: "10.2 Agatha ChristieThe Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie
(This was probably not intended in the rules, but I am going to try - Agatha certainly completely lived ..."
This one is complicated, but I'm afraid it doesn't qualify. We use the Default, or Most Popular, Edition to standardize everything in RwS. This was originally written by Christie as a 2-act play and that edition is the MPE, which has only 80 pages. The novelization was written by Charles Osborne. His editions are combined here at GR so that everything appears under Christie, but even if we were to make an exception for the author, he doesn't qualify for any of the tasks.
I think this is the first time we've run up against this sort of thing, so don't get discouraged.
15.1 TtUS - Flight SeersEcho Park by Michael Connelly
Set in California
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
15.2 TtUS - Flight SeersEdge of Evil by J.A. Jance
Set in Arizona
+15 task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 30
15.1 - TtUS Land CruiserMontana:
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
239 out of 450 pages are set in Montana. He surprised me with this final book and his main character went to Wisconsin by bus. It still felt like a Montana book, though and was a great start to my travels!
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 40
10.1 AuthorsFirst book ever from Anne:
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
----
When I first heard about 'Dragonflight' (which was like twenty years ago), I immediately bought it, but then the hype about the series soured me a bit, and I never actually touched it. So when I picked it up this weekend, it was more from desperation (being out of other books) than anything else.
I could have not been more wrong. It was one of the most enthralling fantasy story I have ever read, and I couldn't wait to continue reading. Some elements of the story are slightly stereotype, the book tells the story of the protagonist coming from rags to riches, and is still a worthy and lovable personality (and, hey, that's what we all like, right?), but otherwise the fantasy world has incredible riches, complexity, and deep background, and slowly opens an epic theme.
I loved it, and I am going to read all the others too, for sure.
----
+10 Task 10.1 (this is the first of three repeats)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
+5 Bacon (post 51)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 35 + 30 = 65
(I have removed the points from post 23, as it was declined)
(I have corrected the 'Oldies' points)
10.2 Agatha Christie's BirthdayFive Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Review
Agatha Christie takes her title from the nursery rhyme often used to count babies’ toes. Detective Poirot associates each of the witnesses to a murder with one of the piggies in the rhyme. This little piggy went to market is a stockbroker. This little piggy stayed home is his older brother who inherited the family estate and potters about with herb garden and distillery, This little piggy had roast beef was the young beautiful and rich socialite who was the “other woman” in a love triangle and later married into the aristocracy. This little piggy had none was a very upright, middle-aged governess who lived sparely on little funds. Finally this little piggy went wee wee all the way home was the teenaged, difficult, spoiled half-sister to the convicted murderess’ and her ward. The story begins with a young woman of twenty-one returns to England from Canada where she had been raised by relatives since the age of five under another name. At her twenty-first birthday, she is given a sealed letter written by her mother who died in prison after being accused of murdering her father, a brilliant painter. The letter claims her mother is innocent of the murder that happened sixteen years ago. This is the only time she ever protested her innocence and by then it was long past done with but still the daughter goes to the famous Belgian detective to find the truth. Of course the genius Hercule Poirot solves the case with his psychology more than hard evidence and I never was sure who it was although at one point or another I suspected everyone! One reason Chrisite ‘s mysteries are so enduring.
+10 pts - Task
+15 pts - Combo (10.3-title in alphabetical order, 10.4 -Five, 10.9- /topic/show/...)
+10 pts - Review
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1942)
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 40 pts
10.9 Six Degrees of Kevin BaconThe Professor's House by Willa Cather
Review: I’ve read both My Antonia and O Pioneers! for high school English classes, but remember very little beyond liking one and not disliking the other. I’d never heard of The Professor’s House before it came up on a podcast I follow, and when I read it my mother-in-law was very excited since Cather is her favorite author. The book itself was very easy to read, although my modern sensibilities read the dialogue as a little stilted. Still, there were a few lines of writing I wanted to jot down in my quotes notebook, and I’m always a fan of any literature that uses architecture as a character or symbol. I also found the academic parts really interesting – they could easily have been written today. I was thrown a little (view spoiler).
+10 Task (see post 121 in help thread)
+10 Oldies
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 60
10.4 MathOne, Two, Three by Elodie Nowodazkij
Review: I used to read young adult novels fairly regularly, but fell out of the practice a couple years ago. I think maybe I’ve got less patience than I used to, because this book annoyed me. Dancing stories are some of my favorites, but this is less a dancing story than a story of moving past dancing. The main character, Nata, was in one moment completely in control and disciplined and in the next moment making really stupid decisions. Some of that is just being a teenager, and the drinking didn’t bother me as much as some other reviewers, given her family history, although I don’t see how she was able to just give it up so fast, but it was still really annoying. Regardless, it was a bumpy book, and had it not read so quickly I likely wouldn’t have finished it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 80
20.9 Authors with Three NamesThe Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith
Review
This is book number thirteen in one of my favorite series by one of my favorite authors. Just reading the titles in this mystery series makes me smile. The predominant characters are women of Botswana, Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and they run The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. They are warm and engaging women who would be great additions to a circle of friends. Their husbands, their associates from work and family and friends all are strong enough to have whole chapters written just about them. With the accompanied of the ever-present bush tea, (and regular tea for Grace Makutsi), mysteries are solved with a slow, thoughtful process of communication, a respect for traditions, the flow into a more modern era and a strong sense of what is right and what is not right. This time the ladies meet the man they most admire, the author of the book upon which the whole business is run. The pages are so studied and well-read that both ladies recite whole paragraphs by heart, somewhat embarrassingly to the American author who self-published the book and sold few. This time the problems that must be solved are close to the heart. Precious’s husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has an apprentice accused of repairing stolen cars for resale. The other problem to be solved is the dismissal of the Mma Potokwane, a dear friend of Precious and her husband, and head of the orphanage these past thirty years. A suspect board member Mr. Ditso Ditso has done this foul deed. A wonderful time is had by all when the straight-shooting Precious confronts the big businessman, when author Clovis Anderson learns he is an asset to the business of detection after all, when Grace’s husband confronts an arrogant builder, when the apprentice has an unusual outcome at his hearing and the ladies are stuck in the wilderness with Mma Potokwane. Naturally everything works out in the end.
+20 pts - Task
+ 5 pts - Combo (10.9 - /topic/show/...)
+10 pts - Review
Task Total - 35 pts
Grand Total - 75 pts
20.1 CelebrationThe Odyssey by Homer
Review
The globally renown and loved classic, the epic of all epics has little left to be written about. I listened on audiobook and the storytelling of the expert storyteller made the drama the more intense and enjoyable. Aside from the fact that Odysseus is gone for twenty years, yet his wife, Penelope is so beautiful and sought after as a wife and mother to future sons for nobles far and wide, at a time when the average life span was not more than forty and the fact that whenever there is a chance to make life more difficult his crew and himself will do it, whether it be forgetting cautions by demigods or falling fast asleep or stealing, the adventures almost seem thy could be real in that long ago time. The heroes who are god-like and the gods who are so human-like excite the imagination like none other. I’m so surprised I never read the actual story before, feeling I knew it so well from movies, children’s tales and the study of mythology. As they say, the book is always better!
+20 pts task (700 bc)
+10 pts - Combo (10.9 - /topic/show/... post #204, 20.6 - >610,000)
+10 pts - Review
+ 5 pts - Jumbo (560)
+25 pts - Oldies
+10 pts - not a novel
Task Total - 80 pts
Grand Total - 155 pts
20.1 Celebration!The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
+20 Task (2007)
+10 Combo (10.9-post 39; 20.9)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 30
15.2 TtUSLand Cruiser
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
New Hampshire
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 60
20.5-HistoryA Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes
+20 task (Forbes was 1943 Winner)
+10 combo (10.2 - 1891-1967; 10.9 - post 198)
+10 Oldies (1928)
Task total=40
Grand total=80
10.1 Authors To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis by Andra Watkins
This is one I was 30% into before the new challenge began. I was so excited for all of the points it would have generated in the Summer Challenge (Subtitle, The South, Novel Lives, Multi-Century), but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it in time.
It is a story about Meriwether Lewis's ghost. Lewis died under uncertain circumstances (maybe murder, maybe suicide...it was never determined) and in this strange tale, the author imagines that he's in a sort of limbo called "Nowhere"...he is sent on assignments that if completed satisfactorily would allow him to move on to whatever is next for a soul. This assignment finds him in 1977 helping a nine-year-old girl get from New Orleans to Nashville to find her father.
The story is told from the point of view of three narrators: Lewis (or "Merry" as he's referred to for most of the book), Emmaline (the girl), and Judge Wilkinson--Lewis's rival in life and his arch-nemesis in Nowhere.
It was an interesting premise...reminded me of Candide in the fact that they are on a quest and some big something happens in every chapter and they run into famous people along the way (in this book, we encounter John James Audubon and Jim from Huck Finn).
The Judge character was irksome--everything was over-the-top evil, a caricature of a Vaudeville villain. The chapters narrated by Merry and Emmaline were nearly indistinguishable--a nine-year-old girl would never talk the way that she's written and a man born in the 1700s would never reference "rocket fuel" or "Tinkerbell."
There were parts that were interesting and almost-enjoyable, but mostly it was pretty forgettable.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 80
10.3 DictionaryEverything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Set in Ohio in the 1970s, the Lee family is struggling with the death of their middle child, Lydia. Lydia, who has her mother's blue eyes and the Chinese features of her father. Lydia, the golden child whom her father dotes on and her mother has pinned all her hopes and dreams, who overshadows bother her brother, Nath, and little sister, Hannah. Lydia, who no one really sees or knows.
There is so much going on in this book: family dealing with a death; the uncertainty of whether that death was accident, murder, or suicide; the politics of a mixed-race family; abandoned dreams and how we come to terms with them; the difficulty of moving from childhood to adolescence to adulthood....but the author deals with it so artfully and compassionately, that the reader never feels overwhelmed. I can't recommend this one more...loved it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 100
20.9 Authors with Three NamesForty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.4 – forty)
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 120
10.6 ReunificationPost Office by Charles Bukowski
+10 task (born in Germany)
+ 5 combo (10.9 post 50)
+ 5 Oldies (1971)
Task total=20
Grand total=100
10.1 - AuthorsThe Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
I just finished reading The Girl in the Spider's Web, written by David Lagercrantz. Released on September 1st, it picks where the late Stieg Larsson left off in his Millennium series. That began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which gained world-wide popularity, with movie versions produced both in Sweden and in the United States. Larsson’s characters, particularly Lisbeth Salander (the girl in the title), were quite complex and kept the reader glued to the page.
(view spoiler)
Like many readers, I was sorry that Larsson had died unexpectedly and would never have a chance to finish the rest of the 10 volumes he had planned to write. When his family chose Lagercarantz to continue his work, I was first on the list for the book at my library. I started reading it on Sunday evening and finished it less than two days later.
(view spoiler)
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 Kevin Bacon message #16)
+10 Review
Task total: 25
Grand Total: 80
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bonnie Jo Campbell (other topics)Peter Gottlieb (other topics)
David McCullough (other topics)
J.A. Jance (other topics)
David McCullough (other topics)
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Please use the add book/author link for the book titles. When claiming combo points, tell how the book qualifies, and provide a link if requested in the task description.
Reading w/Style (RwS) Sample Completed Tasks Post:
20.5 - History
Reveille in Washington, 1860-65 by Margaret Leech
insert 100+ word review here
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2 - Agatha: 1893-1974)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 Review
+5 oldies (1941)
+5 jumbo (524 pages)
Task total: 55
Grand Total: 185
(This assumes the post is mid-challenge, and that you had previously posted 130 points)