Reading with Style discussion
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SP 19 Completed Tasks
Awards by Country Sample Post15.3 AbC
Australia-Miles Franklin Award
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 515 (assumes a mid-season previous total of 500)
20.10 Set in Asia The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (1930s Malaysia)
+20
+5 Combo (10.4 Animal)
Post Total: 25
10.3 Scrabble!The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
You’ll be noticing a bit of a theme this season – books set in or about Italy. We are going there in April. We will be starting our trip in Venice, so I started my reading trip there too.
Berendt, coincidentally I assume, was going to Venice for an extended stay days after La Fenice (the opera house) burned down. Because he was already familiar with the city (and speaks Italian) he was able to connect with various Venetians and ex-pats. He uses the fire as the central motif, along with the investigation into the fire and subsequent trial; and the rebuilding of La Fenice.
Berendt is a journalist, so of course that is his style of writing but it is also very conversational. You feel like you are part of those conversations. He has a knack for finding the quirky and opinionated. This adds a lot of local color to the city and certainly enlivens the story.
I would have enjoyed this book even if we weren’t going to Venice. However, I think reading this really helped bring the city to life (more than guide books do!). 4*
10 task (my carry over book)
10 review
____
20
Running total: 20
15.1 AbCUnited States - Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2013
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
Task total: 15 pts
Season total: 15 pts
20.1 Moll FlandersMaisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Goodness, I liked this book! I was a little unsure at first. I couldn’t remember what had drawn me to it in the first place (other than a GR friend scoring it highly). I am a big fan of British mysteries, so overall it sounded good, and I forged ahead.
This book takes place after WW1. Winspear wrote this, quite obviously, as the first in a series. The technique she uses here works, and I quite liked it. She starts in 1929, then gives us the main character’s backstory, and then goes back to before and during WW1. I thought her format was quite effective: and enhanced my enjoyment of the story. I thought the ‘mystery’ was interesting, although I could see where it was going. Winspear is able to connect you with the characters so I was invested in their well-being during the investigative part of the story.
I like that there is a (very) strong female lead. And I like that there is a side kick (I’m a sucker for a side kick!). The other important characters are interesting as well. I was very impressed with Winspear’s ability to evoke the times. This seems like it will be a very enjoyable series, and I look forward to the next book(s). 4*
20 task
10 review
5 combo 10.8
______
35
Running total: 55
20.10 Asia (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)Summer in Seoul (Season Series #1) by Ilana Tan
95% in Seoul plus 5% in Jakarta
Review
2.5 years ago I read Autumn in Paris which is actually the second book in this series and was absolutely heartbroken. It broke me so bad that I've been hesitating about reading other books by this author. It's time though and I'm glad I did! There were moments when I thought this would end with me sobbing my heart out again but I'm very happy to say that this book was a balm! If you're thinking of reading this series, I'd recommend book 2 first so you have something lovely to look forward to. I've yet to read books 3 & 4 so I may yet come back to revise this review ;)
Once again, I'd recommend this book to fans of J/K-dramas because sooo many moments in this book which were just,'oh, of course, there are only 2 of them at the restaurants' or 'ah, fireworks specially arranged by the guy' etc. Yeah, corny but it's that time of the month so I'm indulging and was happily satisfied. A cute romance with lots of fangirling over K-stars ;p
PS: This book is actually in Bahasa Indonesia but my language skill does not allow me to fluently review this book in same language - apologies.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.8)
+10 Review
No LiT points noting Bahasa Indonesia being my native tounge
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 35
10.7 Olive KitteridgeCirce by Madeline Miller
I had never really thought of Circe in the Odyssey as more than a plot device and now I will always see this person, as Miller describes her, complex and with layered motivations, a life that stretched far before and continues after. The emotional depth of this book reaches the ocean's floor and the firmament without being overwrought in either direction. Circe is involved in multiple myths, in one way or another, in a natural way using family connections that had not occurred to me before, and Miller makes sure each internal story comes to its close for those who are not familiar with them. I enjoyed the read and prefer it to the Song of Achilles, although I liked that book as well.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (20.1, 10.9)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 30
10.1 Square PegDemons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Review
It is not easy to write a review of heavy books, moreso, a book by a master. Demons was one of the big books of Dostoyevsky's that I hadn't read yet.
Demons can be bucketed into several categories - a poltical masterpiece, a book on philosophy, morality, values, beliefs, society, religion, faith, changing scenarios of a country.... this one is mostly for the mind that can never decide on what it believes in and therefore some of the characters deeply resonated with me.
It is this line that struck me the most - "nowadays nobody’s mind is his own. Nowadays there are terribly few distinct minds". Written back in the late 19th century, this statement has not really changed. Infact, I would believe that in this day and age of social media, political beliefs are even more reinforced by minds other than ours.
A terrific read, but for a mind that has read a lot of Dostoyevsky.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Lost in Translation
+10 Oldies (Pub. 1872)
+10 Jumbo (733 Pages)
Total = 50
Season Total = 50
20.3 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in LettersThese Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner
I chose this book without knowing anything about it because it is the choice of a new book club I joined at my nearby Park...which is a huge multi-species conservation area in San Diego. Because of that, I expected it to be chock full of references to Western flora and fauna. Well...that was an incorrect expectation. But the book does not disappoint. The novel is set as a diary of Sarah Prine over a period of 1881-1901 in the Arizona Territory. The diary begins when Sarah is about 16 years old. We learn about problems with Indian raids and attacks by outlaws. We see the extreme difficulties faced by the early settlers to the region. We see Sarah deal with disappointment with men before she meets Jack, the love of her life. The story is first and foremost a romance with the addition of a depiction of a strong woman facing many challenges.
My favorite part is near the end...and doesn't reveal a plot point. Sarah's older brother comes home with a new bride that no one had known anything about. The woman is a citified "hussy" who intends to worm her way into an ownership share of Sarah's ranch. Sarah cures that problem by giving her new sister-in-law the task of helping the ranch hands brand and geld a bull. Problem solved.
3 1/2 stars
Task=20
combo= 5 (10.2)
Review=10
Task total= 35
Grand Total= 50
20.10 Asia Les passeurs de livres de Daraya by Delphine Minoui
Set in Syria and Turkey
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3)
Task total = 25
Points total = 25
10.6 Public DomainNew Hampshire by Robert Frost
This volume contains the famous "path less traveled by" and "end in fire and ice" poems that I typically think of when I think of Frost. But I had forgotten how much of his work was narrative, like the "home is where they have to take you in" and "good fences make good neighbors" (neither of which are in here). There were many country folk and their stories and changes of seasons, nearly all the poetry being very rooted in his life and the world around him, sometimes in his own voice, sometimes in that of others. I was most happy to discover Fragmentary Blue, which is more haiku like in its emotional resonance, and another poem where he decribed a blue butterflies as sky-flakes, which was such a delightful term.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.8)
+10 oldies
Task total: 35
Grand total: 65
10.7 Olive KitteridgeThe Double by José Saramago
Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is a mild-mannered divorced history teacher who doesn't do much beyond marking schoolwork and occasionally meeting up with a girlfriend he's getting bored with ... until the day he watches a rented film in which a bit-part actor appears who looks exactly like him. Soon he's obsessed with the idea of this double.
Saramago's writing style takes some getting used to - extremely long sentences with commas instead of full stops, running dialogue on so it's hard to follow at times. But if you can get used to it, the book is worth it. Like Kafka without the despair, if that's possible.
Special thanks to Rebekah for proposing this task and saving me from having to use the square peg for my very first read of the season!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 LiT
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 30
10.8 MegafinishMaigret and the Saturday Caller by Georges Simenon
This is probably the first time I went from reading the first book in a series to the fifty-ninth book. It worked out just fine, reading-wise, even if there was a bit of worldbuilding whiplash to land in the 1960s. Maigret and his wife now have a television and watch it while eating dinner! My goodness, modern times.
This lean police procedural has an unpleasant premise: a man refuses to divorce his cheating wife, to the point her lover just moves in and takes over his life, and after two years of this, the distressed husband fears he'll end up killing his wife and her lover, and he seeks Maigret out to confess this. Maigret is less wide-eyed by the vagaries of human behavior than I am, but he was still quite puzzled and uncomprehending of what was being asked of him. He knows even less what he's able to do aside from persuading the man that of course he isn't going to commit murder, and to ask him to check in regularly. When the husband suddenly disappears a few days later, Maigret--feeling guilty and still confused--looks into the matter.
What follows it not a twisty type of crime novel. It's really character focused, and the case is solved with legwork and investigation. While not very substantial and not any sort of dive into the psychological aspects, the book is still good at going deep and covering ground quickly, which feels to me like a stark contrast to a lot of crime novels, both older and contemporary.
+10 Task -- M
+5 Combo (10.3 MAI-GRE-T)
+10 LiT
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 40
10.3 ScrabbleWhisper To The Blood by Dana Stabenow
Alaskan private detective Kate Shugak is coerced onto the board governing her native community after a mining company announces a huge operation to mine gold. Murder follows.
This is number 16 in the series but only the second one that I've read. I think they would be better read in order. Certainly one should read book 15 before this one, because a lot of the story here follows on from murders in that book. I was lost with that.
The main plot, relating to the mining company, is a relatively small part of the story and I didn't find its solution totally convincing. But the characters are compelling, and I'll read more.
+10 Task (whisper)
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 50
10.8 MegafinishSo You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
This was sometimes an uncomfortable book to read emotionally, as expected, but I keep seeing things about "don't expect your (insert non-mainstream adjective here) friends to educate you" so I have been reading such group addresses where I find them. I find her suggestions for how to think about and discuss systemic racism when confronting what seem like individual personal instances to be interesting and her comments on what to do and not do if you are a white person accused of racism were illuminating. (Mostly about respecting others' experiences can be different than yours and meaning well means letting go of your ego and your desire to defend your perspective.) In another sense it was easy to read because the writing was clear and there were both personal stories, from the author and others, and references to scientific studies.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 85
15.1 Awards by CountryDeath in Venice by Thomas Mann
US - Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize
15 task
___
15
Running total: 70
10.5. Civil War Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allen
Interesting read that is both very modern and very dated at once. Written in the 1890s, Lois Cayley is a Girton College (Cambridge) mathematics graduate who is orphaned and only has two pence in her pocket. But she wants an adventure! So she sets off to Germany as a companion to the Cantankerous Old Lady — and like every modern 1890s woman shows her skill at bike riding, typewriting, business and solving mysteries. She knows what she wants and sets out to get it.
Unfortunately, the portrayal of non English characters has racist characteristics. At best the Germans and Americans are broad cultural stereotypes while the descriptions of Egyptians and Indians are made in terms that are unacceptable today. Both the language and the implication of the cultural descriptions are jarring to the modern reader
10 pts 10.5 Civil War (Grant)
5 pts 10.3 Scrabble
5 pts 10.8 Megafinish
10 pts review
10 pts Oldies 1899
Task total 40 pts
Season total: 55 pts
deleted duplicate post
10.5 Civil WarFoundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
+10 Task (Jackson)
+5 Combo 10.8
+5 Jumbo (512 pages)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 20
10.8 MegafinishThe Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper
True crime is really not my genre and I only read this because my book group is discussing it next month (I’m hoping lots of people will shelve it before the end of the challenge and I can switch it to Kate’s task).
The book starts with the fires and Hooper really managed to evoke the feel of the devastation and the people caught up in it. (I would have preferred to read it at a time when I couldn’t smell smoke in the air). She gives the reader a picture of the district and the people who live there. We meet the police who are investigating the fires and follow their hunt for an arsonist. The second part focuses on the defense lawyers and their impressions of the suspect. We learn about his background and gain some understanding of his situation. The third and shortest part is the trial.
This is a beautifully written book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in true crime, arson or autism.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 40
20.2 Rebecca:Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
The author was born in England in 1948.
Review: I read this book because it was chosen by my real life book group for this month. I was quite happy initially to pick it up, as the setting (17th century Amsterdam) has always held interest for me. This was the Golden Age of The Netherlands, when the country was doing better than ever before. It was the age of Vermeer and Rembrandt. I have always loved the art of the era and since the description mentioned artists, I thought I might love the book. I also didn't know anything about the tulip mania at the time, when tulip bulbs were bought and sold for sums that could have bought you a house, so I thought I could learn more.
Unfortunately, I do not think the novel was particularly well written. It annoyed me was that the characters were for the most part very unsympathetic. It was difficult to feel for them, when they are people who lie, cheat and plot, or people who think that just because they are rich, they can do anything. They made very bad errors of judgement and came up with completely ridiculous ways of deceiving their nearest and dearest.
Also, the centre of the plot was a love story between two of the main characters, but the reader gets the finished product. In one chapter, they characters meet in passing, and in the next, they are suddenly wildly in love and cannot live with each other, so much so that they are willing to risk everything to carry on their affair despite one of them being married, and the other risking his career. But it doesn't work for me when the affair just springs out of nowhere, based on nothing, between two quite dislikeable characters. I wasn't emotionally involved enough to care.
I also thought that in some chapters, the language used was so modern that it detached me from the setting. Would a 17th century housemaid really tell the mistress of the house, her employer whom she relied on for her living, to "not get lofty with me"?
The book is a very quick read, as the chapters are short and there's enough there to keep going. You do want to know what the resolution is, and there are a few moments when you can't put the book down, as the next few chapters will tell you what the outcome of the plot is. I didn't feel like not finishing, but the book sadly felt shallow. I didn't like most of the characters and I wasn't emotionally invested in them. 3 out of 5 stars.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 30
20.5 Myra BreckinridgeHexbreaker by Jordan L. Hawk
This story falls squarely in romantic suspense in nature with a historical urban fantasy setting. So many genre words.... They all played together nicely, with hexes and familiars and witches being part of what feels like a late 19th century, early twentieth century New York. (I don't remember seeing a year, but there could have been). The main characters, Tom and Cicero, were likeable and sincere and you wanted them to achieve their goal and figure out a way to get together. The personal and case related tensions were appealing and built up well. The level of explicit detail was similar to that of a mainstream m/f paperback romance novel. The author has written other books in this world and I am interested in reading them.
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 110
20.3 Ella Minnow PeaThe Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath by Gerda Weissmann Klein
Letters between Gerda Weissmann and her fiance Kurt Klein in the aftermath of WWII. During the war Gerda was imprisoned in a slave labor camp and endured a death march at the end of the war. Kurt was a German-born American GI who help liberate the Gerda.
This book collects their letters between the time Kurt returned to the U S in 1946 and their marriage in 1947. They describe the post war period in Europe and the repercussions of the Holocaust on those who survived. However the main focus is on this couple’s love and their desire to return to normalcy and begin their life together while not forgetting the friends and family they lost.
20 pts 20.3
5 pts 10.3 “letters”
5 pts 10.8 Megafinish
10pts Review
Task total: 40 pts
Season total: 95 pts
15.1 AbCAustralia - Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction (2017)
The Dry by Jane Harper
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 65
20.5. Myra BreckinridgePerestroika by Tony Kushner
Reading a play often leaves some of the playwright’s vision on the table especially with a play that includes surrealistic elements such as the Angel that are had to envision from the text alone.
Perestroika highlights the dark days of 1980s when AIDS was devastating the gay community creating fear and uncertainty. However, the play presents some glimmers of hope with the advent of AZT therapies. Still characters fight with the fear that they are facing divine retribution (Cohn), death alone (Prior) and the struggle between finding their identity and fear (Joe). Well worth reading but seeing a staged version may be more effective than reading the play
20 pts. 20.5 Myra Breckinridge
5 pts 20.7 Anna Karenina
10 pts Review
5 pts Oldies
Task total: 40
Season total: 135 pts
10.8 MegafinishA Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott
"A Touch of Stardust" takes us to the Hollywood sets of the spectacular movie "Gone with the Wind". A fictional character, Julie, is hoping to break into screenwriting. She gets a behind-the-scenes look at movie making when actress Carole Lombard hires her as an assistant. The lively, outspoken Carole is romantically involved with actor Clark Gable (who plays the unforgettable Rhett Butler).
Producer David O. Selznick keeps tight control over the production of "Gone with the Wind", and Julie's boyfriend, Andy, works long hours for the demanding producer. Meanwhile, war is brewing in 1939 Europe, and Americans are worried that the United States will be pulled into the battle. Andy fears for his Jewish family members living in Europe. One sees the contrast between the glamour of Hollywood, and the reality of prejudice and war.
The book was a bit unrealistic in portraying Julie spending so much time on the "Gone with the Wind" sets when she was supposed to be first working for Carole Lombard, and later writing screenplays. The making of the movie was fascinating from the scenes of the burning of Atlanta to the meeting with Margaret Mitchell, the author of the famous book, at the movie's premier showing. The romances of Scarlett and Rhett on-screen, and Carole Lombard and Clark Gable in real life are legendary. I found this to be a light, enjoyable book which brought back good memories of reading "Gone with the Wind" and watching the movie years ago.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 35
10.3 ScrabbleErotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
+10 Task
Combo (+5 10.8 Megafinish, +5 10.9 Sisters)
Task Total = 20 points
10.2 DecadeHolden's Performance by Murray Bail
Pub. 1987
Review
I really don't know what it is that is so fascinating of Murray Bail's writing. I seem to not particularly care of the plot or characters but yet I can't seem to put the book down. I kept being drawn on and on to read. I think it's the way he describes life in general or rather life in Australia in general. The way he puts things into particular perspective that really speaks to me.
I'm still wondering how this title, "Holden's Performance", applies... You'd expect this Holden to be some extraordinary man and the thing is, there was nothing spectacular in his background or upbringing except for his photographic memory. In the end, his overall blandness made him exceptional.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.3 - HOLDEN'S; 10.8)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 70
15.2 USA-Book Sense Book of the Year Award-on GR pageWater for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Task total= 15
Grand Total= 65
15.1 AbCNew Zealand—Ockham New Zealand Book Award
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Season total: 15
(Set +85% in Papua New Guinea re:group project.)
Post 13 Ed wrote: "20.3 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in LettersThese Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner
I chose this book without knowing anything a..."
Ed, this doesn't fit 10.2 because it was first published in 1998. Did you mean a different task for your combo?
Post 33 Mary wrote: "20.5. Myra BreckinridgePerestroika by Tony Kushner
Reading a play often leaves some of the playwright’s vision on the table especially with a play that includes surre..."
I'm sorry, Mary. The books for 20.7 needed to be in the top 500 of that list and Perestroika was too far down to qualify.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 13 Ed wrote: "20.3 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in LettersThese Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner
I chose this book without..."
No...that was my mistake...thanks for catching it.
10.4 AnimalBlack Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The atmosphere and voice created from the first page of the book absorbed me in the story immediately. This was enhanced by the experience of hearing Marlon James read and speak in Seattle. I love the dialogue and could hear James' voice as I read.
The book was overflowing with sensory experience and I especially enjoyed that when the characters were in a natural environment. It was not only the visual and auditory descriptions, but the focuses on smell that surrounded me:
I put the cloth to my nose and one year of sun, night, thunder, and rain, hundreds of days of walks, dozens of hills, valleys, sands, seas houses cities, plains. Smell so strong it became sigh, and hearing, and touch...Smell pushing me, pulling me, dragging me through jungles, tunnels, birds...p287
The mythological characters involved in the quest story were fascinating. I was particularly fond of Leopard and the vampires. I would like to learn more about African myth before the next book comes out and will probably do an audio re-read as well. There is a lot of nuance and detail to take in.
Some reviewers have mentioned that the sex and violence were too much for them. I didn’t remember sex overshadowing the story so I decided to do a small experiment this morning as I started Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. In the first 70 pages I counted about 6-8 scenes or descriptions involving sex. I pulled my copy of James’ book off the shelf and skimmed it and I found about the same number of references in the first 70 pages. In both books, I felt these scenes enhanced and further explained the content and background of the stories the authors wanted to tell. There was a lot of violence, and I can’t say that I enjoy reading about violence, but neither do I shy away from it. I didn’t think there was any more violence than you find in other fantasy quest stories or the violent content of battles between soldiers at war. One of the interesting things James spoke of at the talk I attended was his desire to express the actual suffering that accompanies violence through his writing. He also describes it in this article “You Have to Risk Going Too Far”:https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.5 Myra Breckinridge (Tracker - MC)
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 30
20.9 True CrimeThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
+20 pts - Task
+ 10 pts - Combo (20.7, 10.3)
Task total and Season total = 30
15.1 Awards by CountryPoland - Ryszard Kapuściński Prize
War's Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 55
15.2 AbCIceland - Icelandic Literary Award
Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
+15 Task
Season Total = 30
10.9 SistersParasite by Mira Grant
+10 Task
+5 Combo 10.5
+5 Jumbo (504 pages)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 80
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 33 Mary wrote: "20.5. Myra BreckinridgePerestroika by Tony Kushner
Reading a play often leaves some of the playwright’s vision on the table especially with a pla..."
Thanks. Missed that qualifier somehow. Sorry
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Enormous Room (other topics)The Address (other topics)
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (other topics)
Sense and Sensibility (other topics)
My Brilliant Friend (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
E.E. Cummings (other topics)Fiona Davis (other topics)
Theodora Goss (other topics)
Jane Austen (other topics)
Elena Ferrante (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.
If using an outside source to qualify a book for points or combo, please be sure to post in the appropriate task thread prior to posting in this thread.
Sample RwS Post
20.1 Moll Flanders
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
< insert 100+ word review >
+20 Task
+ 10 Combo (20.6, 20.7)
+10 Review
+10 Lost in Translation
+10 Oldies (Pub'd 1877)
+20 Jumbo (964 pages)
Post Total: 80
Season Total: 500 (assumes a previous total of 420 for the season)