Lea’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Lea’s comments from the 2022 ONTD Reading Challenge group.

Unforgiven was an original screenplay. It was ~inspired by~The Shootist but wasn't based on it, ie, it wasn't an adaptation. So it wouldn't count.

(Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/faq)

HOWEVER, I looked it up and there actually WAS an Oscar-nominated movie (Best Art Direction) based on The Shootist, called... (wait for it) The Shootist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sho...

So you may indeed pick The Shootist, because of this 1976 movie starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall.

My plan of reading only celeb-recommended books this month was totally shot to hell. Got stumped on The Left Hand of Darkness (it needs way more concentration than I have right now) and have had to read a bunch of stuff for classes, which reaaally cut my leisure reading time

Oh well, at least I read one book for the task

It does have a bit of a lull after the beginning, but it picks up again in the second half, Sasha

I finished it! Joanie (joaniemaloney on ONTD) told me that she thought the book had kind of a Pushing Daisies vibe, I think she's spot on.

I wasn't a fan of Flavia, though. I dislike precocious children, and she was a bit scary at times. If I was the police involved the case, I'd probably hate her. She disrupted crime scenes, removed and destroyed evidence, and generally made the case a lot harder for them to solve and later bring to trial. She got very lucky in the end.

Well I finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - 3 stars, liked it well enough but didn't love it. This is like the 3rd rec by Felicia Day that leaves me "whelmed" so I think our tastes don't really match.

Picking up The Left Hand of Darkness today!

I'm at 33%... is it just me or is Flavia a little sociopathic? like damn sis... The stuff she does to her sisters is so extra...

Her narrative voice reminds me of Merricat from We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson.

I read 3 books for this month's challenge: Cafe Europa: Life After Communism, which I loved and learned a lot from, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, which I didn't care so much for as most of the science really went right over my head, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, which was a lot more medical/technical than I thought, but was a really good read. I definitely learned a lot about the mind and its possible disorders, it was very interesting.

Didn't finish Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America or Racism: A Short History on time, but will continue to read them!

Omg, I'm still about halfway through, Rochelle! I'm actually liking the writing style (more accessible than I thought it would be), but since it's really the kind of book you gotta pay a lot of attention to and highlight and make notes, I haven't had a lot of time to devote completely to it.

The thoughts on Spanish antisemitism/racism (and how they were transported to the American colonies) were super interesting to me, but I was disappointed in the lack of mentions of Portugal or Brazil. When the author says, for example, "[...] from the very beginning of the settlement of the Americas, only those thought to be of pure Christian ancestry were permitted to join the ranks of the conquistadores and missionaries" - that does not apply to Portugal/Brazil at all, and we're a big part of the Americas! Many of the most important explorers/colonizers/traders/governors/administrators/landowners etc in Brazil were New Christians. In fact the very first governor was a convert, Fernão de Noronha. I feel like this is an important bit of history that should have been included.

What about you? Anything you particularly liked or disliked?

A discussion post for those of us who are following Felicia Day's rec and reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley!

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Rachel wrote: "I'll join you for The Book of Strange New Things!!! I had it checked out and renewed it like 5 times but never got around to reading it lol. I'll check it out again whenever you're ready!"

alright, cool! I'll let you know in advance if/when I pick it up ;)

Ok, so far I've been reading a couple of books that match the challenge every month (2 in January, 2 in February so far), mixed with other stuff, but in March I'm ONLY going to read books that fit the challenge. I like to pick books as I go along so I'm going to leave a little list here of the books that interest me and the celebs who recommended them so it's easier to choose, for personal reference. I won't be reading EVERYTHING, but if more people are interested in a particular title, it'll motivate me to pick it!

The Dry (Reese Witherspoon)
In a Dark, Dark Wood (Reese Witherspoon)
All the Light We Cannot See (Reese Witherspoon)
The Left Hand of Darkness (Hugh Dancy)
Lucky Jim (Hugh Dancy)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Felicia Day)
Spinster (SJP)
The Glorious Heresies (SJP)
The Vegetarian (SJP)
The Underground Railroad (SJP)
A Gentleman in Moscow (SJP)
The Book of Strange New Things (SJP)
All About Love (Kate Hudson and Emma Watson)
Cloud Atlas (Natalie Portman)
The Razor's Edge (Jennifer Garner)
Station Eleven (Emma Roberts)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Oprah)
Zealot (Emmy Rossum)
Just Mercy (Brie Larson)
Between the World and Me (Usher)

(The article "The" doesn't count)

Some suggestions:

Othello - William Shakespeare
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Orientalism - Edward Said
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman
N or M? - Agatha Christie
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
NOS4A2 - Joe Hill
Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin
This Savage Song - Victoria Schwab
Three Dark Crowns - Kendare Blake
The Two Towers - JRR Tolkien
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
Devil in Winter - Lisa Kleypas
Dealing with Dragons - Patricia C Wrede
Dare Me - Megan Abbott
Danger! Women Artists at Work - Debra Mancoff
Dreaming of Dior: Every Dress Tells a Story - Charlotte Smith

Posting the February wrap-up a bit earlier for those who have already finished their book of the month! Let us know how your reading went in February, if you had trouble completing this month's task, if you enjoyed the book you read and whether you'd recommend it!

Eve wrote: "Can I read it for this month, or should I save it for the month when we read books written by celebrities? It is educational about Scientology (plus I have like 5 other books by celebrities I want to read for that month lol)."

Sure Eve, that would work just fine :)

Yep, Stephen King counts as a celeb

That's a great idea for a post, Rachel! Please do!

Um, I think I might go for The Return of the King in April, but looking at that Oscars library, there's also Rebecca, All Quiet on the Western Front and Hamlet that interest me... maybe this will be the month when I finally read Rebecca lmao

Any category is fine, Alyssa.

sraxe wrote: "I mentioned a book earlier in the post that I was wanting to read, but now I'm thinking about switching it. Would James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time qualify for this category?"

Hi sraxe! Yeah, it does.

I just finished Café Europa by Slavenka Drakulic´ - I loved it, thank you so much for the rec, Rozalina! I really did learn a lot, and it was a fascinating read.

Lucie wrote: "(recommended by JK Rowling - does she count as a celebrity??) "

Yes she does, Lucie!

I really want to read The Left Hand of Darkness so I might read it with you guys as well. I hope to read more than one book that fits this criteria though - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is also on my list, and I really want to read something off Sarah Jessica Parker's recs.