Reading with Style discussion

Post your completed tasks here. In order to help us better manage our score keeping: PLEASE ONLY POST ONE BOOK PER MESSAGE.

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 Iris Murdoch

Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories by Raymond Carver

+20 Task (Pub 1988)
+10 Combo (10.3, No Letter I, 20.6 Characters)
+10 Young (1938-1988)
+ 5 Multiple
+ 5 Oldies
+ 5 Jumbo (544 pages)

Task Total: 55
Season Total: 455 (assumes mid-season with a previous total of 400)

The Ratings Game Sample Post

15.4 RG

250000+ Ratings

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

+15 Task
+5 Oldies

Post Total: 20
Season Total: 475 (assumes mid-season with a previous point total of 455)

20.3 The Severed Head
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

play version The Member of the Wedding: The Play by Carson McCullers

+20 task
+15 Combo (10.3 author no letter i, 20.1 Iris Murdoch (pub 1946) 20.6 9 Characters
+10 Young (1917-1967)
+5 Oldie

+50 task
50 Season Total

50.1 Project RwS

Tuvalu

Time and Tide: The Islands of Tuvalu by Tony Wheeler

task=50
combo= 5 (10.3)

Task total=55
Grand Total=55

10.4 Visiting

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Shelved as YA Assignment / 1200 Lexile

(this was my carryover book)

+10 Task -- shelved at Catching up on the Classics (and lots more!)
+10 Combo (10.3 no I; 20.6 more than nine characters)
+15 Oldies -- published 1853

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 35

20.6 Characters
The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

Review for the interested:
(view spoiler)[Eh.
The mythology of the series overall is interesting, but this book spent very little time on it. Instead, it was mostly a spy novel and it wasn’t successful... There were a few scenes with heart and tension, but mostly it was a lot of scurrying around, plotting, and hiding. But plodding and predictable.
I was bored.
Paige is such a flat character, and that makes it hard when the books are first-person. There are ways to have a conflicted and unsure heroine without making her dull and weak, but these books can’t get there. Paige is just...blank. She’s there to serve a plot, she’s not a fully realized character. And the “romance” is just awful. In this book we’re back to where we were in book 1 - all tension is created by the two star-crossed lovers not speaking to each other, avoiding each other, and it’s such a lazy device. But at least it was not the focus of the book - those bits were probably just there to remind readers that Paige and Warden are a thing.
Also like book 1, this was more padding than substance, so that this could be a long money-making series.
I don’t know if I’ll bother with more in the series. I really really like the world and when the books explore the aether and the various voyant gifts, I’m hooked. But there’s really not much of that, and the A plot is beyond basic. Meh. (hide spoiler)]
Note- the book is mostly set in London, but more like 65%. No combo claimed for 20.5.

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3, 10.8 - Book 3)
+10 Young (born 1991)

Task total = 40
Season total = 40

50.1 Project RwS

A Land Ruled by Silence: Tales of Transitions in the Warm Heart of Africa by Eliza McCullen

Malawi

50 task
5 combo 20.6
____
55

Running total: 55

10.2 Jackson's Dilemma

The Horseman's Secret by Jeannie Watt

10 task
5 combo 20.6
____
15

Running total: 70

20.1 Iris Murdoch

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

+20 task (1981)
+15 combo (10.3, 10.7, 20.6)
+10 young (1938-1988)
+ 5 oldies

Task total=50
Grand total=50

20.7 Shakespeare

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.6 Characters
+20 oldie (pub 1623)

Task total: 45
Season total: 45

20.1 Iris Murdoch
The Alienist by Caleb Carr

+20 task

Season total: 20

20.6 Characters

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

Task: +20
Season Total: +20

20.6 Characters

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

All of them are not listed in the wikipedia page, but there are more than 10 characters worth mentioning (Juliet, Toby, Cyril, Perry, Mrs Ambrose, Mrs Scaife, Beatrice, Oliver Alleyne, Trude, Dolly, Betty, Giselle,…)

+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.5)

Task total = 25

Points total = 25

10.2 Jackson's Dilemma

His Favorites by Kate Walbert
Review: (view spoiler)[I’m very torn about this book. My gut hated it. I finished it and though “UGH”. So many blurbs proclaimed this a fantastic book, and I felt duped. I hated all the characters, I hated the plot, I really hated the way the narrative unspooled.
And yet.
It made me think. Why did I hate it so much? The writing was potent, efficient. Sometimes. Some scenes are crystal clear, so evocative; others are hazy sketches, lifeless. It’s uncomfortable.
I went into this thinking I’d be reading a story, but it’s not. It’s more like wandering through a memory. A painful memory.
I’ve read a few things that play with memory as a form, but this feels more real in a way. Real in how the story is told in fits and starts, and just when something starts happening narratively, a retreat. An aside. A deflection. Looping and retracing and floundering.
I expected a story, I got rawness.
I did not like it, but I can appreciate it. (hide spoiler)]

+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.3)

Task total = 15
Season total = 55

50.1 Project RWS
Gambia

Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Task - 50 pts
Combo - 5 pts (10.3)
Season - 55 pts

20.6 Characters

The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

+20 task
+15 combo (10.7, 20.1, 20.10)

Task total=35
Grand total=85

(Edited to remove Oldies claim, cut and paste gone awry)

20.3 A Severed Head

Carrie by Stephen King
Famous broadway flop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carri...

Review: (view spoiler)[Flashback time. Crown Books, I was around 13. One wall had the Steven Kings books. I remember seeing Carrie and wanting to buy it but my mom wouldn’t let me buy horror. Tried to check it out of the library but the librarian wouldn’t let me. Thus the first King book I read was The Eyes of the Dragon because it was shelved as Fantasy. And then And then at 14 I read The Stand because it was shelved as Sci-Fi and after that, well, the cat was out of the bag and I got to read anything.
But I never made it back to Carrie until now. Even before I saw the whole movie, I knew the main points through pop-culture osmosis. And then I saw the movie and figured the book wouldn’t have anything to offer. I only read it now because it promised to be a quick and easy way to fulfill a prompt.

Well, I’m glad for the prompt because this was excellent! King so often has things that need to be overlooked - too folksy, too long, too booze-soaked, etc. This though, this was precise and crafted and just a really solid piece of writing.

I found the climax unexpectedly thrilling, seeing as none of it was a surprise. And the denouement was unexpectedly touching.

No wonder this launched King’s career. It’s a classic. (hide spoiler)]

+20 task
+15 combo (10.5 - #64 on Best Endings, 20.1 - Published 1974, 20.6 - More than 9 named characters that are important to the story)
+5 Oldie (1974)

Task total = 40
Season total = 95

10.5 D-Day

The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

+10 Task (approved in help thread)
+15 Combo (10.3, 10.7 short stories, 20.6 there are 11 stories with named characters in each)
+10 Young
+15 Oldies (Pub 1833)

Post Total: 50
Season Total: 50

10.8 Series

Spring by Ali Smith

+10 Task

Post Total: 10
Season Total: 60

20.6 Characters

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu

-Graphic Novel, not eligible for Style

+20 Task - 9 Characters important to the story

Grand Total: 20 pts

20.10 Historical

This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart

+20 task
+15 combo 10.3, 20.1, 20.6
+ 5 oldie (pub 1964)

Task total: 40
Season total: 85

15.1 RG

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
>250000 ratings

Task total: 15
Grand total: 15

20.6 Characters

There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

(This will surely eventually be shelved as YA but isn't listed that way at the moment.)

+20 Task -- more than nine named characters
+10 Combo (10.3 no I; 10.8 part of a series with 3 published works)

Post Total: 30
Season Total: 65

20.8 Revisit a Friend

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

+20 Task (first read August 2018)
+15 Combo (10.3, No Letter I, 10.8 #2 in series, 20.9 shelved 56 times)

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 35

10.8 Series

Equoid by Charles Stross

+10 Task (#2.9 in series)
+5 Combo (10.3, No Letter I)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 50

10.7 Summer Shorts (Mary's Task)

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (70 pages)

and

The Furnished Room by O. Henry (72 pages)

Task : +10

Season total = 20+10 = 30

10.1 Design Your Own Task
Read a book that has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award

Extinctions by Josephine Wilson (Winner 2017)

Task: +10
Season Total: 10

20.7 Shakespeare

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

+20 task
+25 age (1599)
+5combo (20.6)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 65

20.2 Oxford Authors

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

+20 task
+15 Combo 10.4, 20.3, 20.6
(play https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/8839/t...)
+10 Oldie (1887)
+10 Young author

55 task
105 Season total

20.5 London

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (set 80% in London, 20% in Japan)

+20 Task
+10 Young (b. 1988)
+10 Combo (10.3; 20.6)

Task total: 40
Season total: 40

15.1- RG

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Ratings: 136 134 (100 000 -249 999)

Task: 15
Post: 15

10.7 Summer Shorts

At the Sign of the Cat and Racquet by Balzac Honoré de. 96 pages

and

The Ball At Sceaux by Balzac Honoré de. 56 p

10pts. 10.7 Summer Shorts
5 pts 10.3 Summer 2017
15pts Oldies

Task total 30 pts

Season total 30 pts

20.1 Iris Murdoch
The Witch of Blackbird Pondby Elizabeth George Speare
Lexile score 850
Task +20
Combo +5 10.3 Summer 2017
Oldies+5 (1958 published)
Total Points: 30

15.1 Ratings

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

15 pts 15.1 100,000-249,999
5 pts nonfiction
5 pts Old

Total task: 25 pts
Total season: 55 pts

20.6 Characters

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

(Wikipedia lists 14 significant characters)

+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.8 - Poirot #25; 20.1 - pub 1942; 20.3 - approved; 20.10)
+10 Oldies (pub 1942)

Task total: 50
Season total: 50

20.6 Characters

The Bell by Iris Murdoch
Goodreads lists 15 named characters

+20 task
+15 bonus (20.1 Iris Murdoch, 20.2 Oxford Authors & 10.6 Author Lifetime Awards)
+5 Oldies (published 1958)

Task Total = 40
Season Total = 50

Post 4 Ed wrote: "50.1 Project RwS

Tuvalu

Time and Tide: The Islands of Tuvalu by Tony Wheeler

task=50
combo= 5 (10.3)

Task total=55
Grand Total=55"

Are the people interviewed named characters?

Post 28 Beth wrote: "20.7 Shakespeare

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

+20 task
+25 age (1599)
+10 combo (10.3, 20.6)

Task total: 55
Grand total: 70"

I'm sorry, Beth. This doesn't work for 10.3 because there is an I in William.

Post 33 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.1 Iris Murdoch
The Witch of Blackbird Pondby Elizabeth George Speare
Lexile score 850
Task +20
Combo +5 10.3 Summer 2017
Oldies+5 (1958 published)
Total Points: 30"

I'm sorry, Jayme. This doesn't qualify for the 10.3 combo because there is an I in Elizabeth.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 4 Ed wrote: "50.1 Project RwS

Tuvalu

Time and Tide: The Islands of Tuvalu by Tony Wheeler

task=50
combo= 5 (10.3)

Task total=55
Grand Total=55"

Are the peopl..."


Yes...the people are named and there are at least nine...I didn't think about this category for NF books.

(BTW,,,Hello everyone from Rio de Janeiro!)

10.10 Group Reads

The Children of Men by P.D. James

+10 Task
+5 Oldies (pub. 1992)
+15 Combo (10.3; 20.1; 20.6--do we need to list the 9 named characters? I didn't even think of that when I claimed this for combo on my other post...)

Task total: 30
Season total: 70

I read the other post first and was wondering why you had to remind someone there is an i in william. And then I came here and someone was me! Aargh and oops. HAhahaha I have no idea what I was thinking..... Fixed it

15.1 RG Ratings 250-999

Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi: My Humble Quest to Heal My Colitis, Calm My ADD, and Find the Key to Happiness by Brian Leaf (615 ratings)

+15 task
+ 5 nonfiction

Task total: 20
Season total: 105

20.3 A Severed Head

The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford

Listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.1 Iris Murdoch - pub 1919)
+10 Oldies (1919)

Task total: 35
Season total: 85

10.4 Visiting

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.6)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 15

10.5 D-Day

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.3)
+10 Young
+10 Oldies (pub. 1915)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 50

20.6 Characters

The Princess Bride (1973) by William Goldman (Lexile 870)


+20 task
+15 Combo 10.4,10.5, 20.1
+ 5 Oldie

Task total 40
Season total 145

From Post 26

Lalitha wrote: "10.7 Summer Shorts (Mary's Task)

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (70 pages)

and

The Furnished Room by [author:O. H..."

+10 Oldies

From Post 33

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.1 Iris Murdoch
The Witch of Blackbird Pondby Elizabeth George Speare
Lexile score 850
Task +20
Combo +5 10.3 Summer 2017
Oldies+5 (1958 published)
Total Points: 30"

This doesn't work for 10.3, but it does qualify for 20.10, so no change in score.

From Post 36

Penny wrote: " 20.6 Characters

The Bell by Iris Murdoch
Goodreads lists 15 named characters

+20 task
+15 bonus (20.1 Iris Murdoch, 20.2 Oxford Authors & 10.6 Author Lifetime Awar..."

+5 Combo 20.4