Anika’s Comments (group member since Dec 25, 2011)

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

20.2 The Virgin of the Rocks

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

If you enjoyed How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery or How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler, I think you would quite enjoy this book!

+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.5, "In PRAISE of Love"; 10.9, MPE 165 pages; 20.6, colon

Task total: 35
+50 Half-way Finish, 20-point tasks
+200 MegaFinish
Season total: 1320

20.3 The Madonna of the Cat

A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets by James Bowen

Early on in the season, I felt like I kept happening upon books where characters had pet cats--but had the books slated elsewhere. Now that the time has come to actually fill this task, I can't find a pet cat to save my life!
Enter the reliable memoir of life with a cat--there are A LOT of them!
This audiobook just happened to be available immediately at my library so it was a pretty obvious choice which one to read.

James, a recovering addict, spends his days busking on the streets of London just trying to make enough money for a bite to eat. Heading into his flat one night, he hears a weak meow and spots a handsome--though clearly roughed up--ginger tom.
Thus begins one of the sweetest feline love stories I've ever heard.
Not just because Bob is extraordinary--he absolutely is. Getting an insiders look at the struggles facing someone who has hit rock bottom and is just trying to stay afloat was eye-opening and (while this book would have benefitted from a better edit) I'm so glad I read it.

+20 Task, Bob's human is James ;-)
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.5, "CAT on a Hot Tin Roof"; 20.5, colon; 20.7, James briefly visits his mother in Australia

Task total: 45
Season total: 1035

15.10 HDYGG?

Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs

New York = NAPA CABBAGE
Manhattan = MUNG BEAN

dropdeadhealthyonemanshumblequestforbodilyperfection = PANSY
dropdeadhealthyonemanshumblequestforbodilyperfection = DAHLIA
dropdeadhealthyonemanshumblequestforbodilyperfection = COLUMBINE

5 Total Plants, +5 Flower Bonus

Task total: 20
+150 Finisher Bonus, 50 total plants
Season total: 990

15.9 HDYGG?

Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger

MPE 320 pages
0 = PEPPERMINT

Paris = POTATO
France = FENNEL

+15 Task, 3 Plants

Task total: 15, 45 Plants
Season total: 820

Kim wrote: "How Does Your Garden Grow? 15.10

Love Finds You in Sunset Beach, Hawaii. Robin Jones Gunn

Flowers:
Love Finds You in Sunset Beach, Hawaii - astilbe
Vegetable:
Heart..."

Congrats on your HDYGG garden finish!

Karen Michele wrote: "15.6 HDYGG?

The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk

Flowers

thE MAN whO spokE sNakish = ANEMONE

Vegetables:

Herbs: page count = 442

4 = DILL

2 Plants th..."

Sorry, Karen, but DILL was already claimed back in post 73.
Plant total for this post is 1.

15.8 HDYGG?

Round Here and Over Yonder: A Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies by Trae Crowder

256 pages
6 = CHIVES

rOuNDherEANDoveryonderafrontporchtraveLguIdebytwoprogressivehillbillies = DANDELION*
roundHereandoveryonderafrontporChtravelgUideBytwoprogreSSIvehIllbillies = HIBISCUS*
roUndhereandOveryoNdERaFrontporchtravelguidebytWoprogressivehiLlbillieS = SUNFLOWER*
roundhereandoveryonderafrontporchtravelguidebYtwoprogressivehillbiLLIes = LILY
roundhereandoveryonderafrontporchtrAvelGuidebytwOprogRessivehillBilliEs = BORAGE

+15 Task, 6 Plants
+15, Flower Bonus

Task total: 30, 42 Plants
Season total: 805

20.7 International Travel

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

+20 Task, the gang lives in London and they take a day-trip to Paris
+15 Combo: 10.9, MPE 400 pages; 20.1, Julian is an artist and teaches art classes at Monica's Cafe; 20.6, from 6 different POVs

Task total: 35
Season total: 775

10.8 Elemental

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (810 Lexile)

+10 Task, Fire
+15 Combo: 10.9, MPE 392 pages; 20.1, one of the main characters is a visual artist (drawing and painting); 20.7, Emoni (who lives in Philadelphia) and her cooking class have a week-long exchange experience in Spain

Task total: 25
+50 Half-way Bonus, completed all 10-point tasks
Season total: 740

10.5 Golden Broadway Shows

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

+10 Task, "Of Mice and MEN"
+5 Combo: 10.3, pub. 2013

Task total: 15
Season total: 665

10.4 Baby Boom

Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson

+10 Task, b. 1959
+15 Combo: 10.3, pub. 2023; 10.5, "The NIGHT That Made America Famous"; 10.9, 320 pages

Task total: 25
Season total: 650

Mary wrote: "15.6 HDYGG

The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman


15 pts 15.6 HDYGG

Leek: Los Angeles County
Cucumber: California
Garlic: Golden Coast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal....
Potato: Pacific Coast https://www.britannica.com/place/Paci...
Rutabaga: Ring of Fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of..."

I apologize that I'm so behind on scoring HDYGG!

We applaud your ingenuity in searching for scoring opportunities; sadly, we can't accept "Golden Coast," "Pacific Coast," or "Ring of Fire."
It must be a proper geographical location (city, state, country, planet, county, etc.), not a generalized area. The "coasts" are too general and the Ring of Fire is underwater/on the ocean floor, not in L.A.

Plant total for this task is 3.

Apple wrote: "Will this work backwards ? In Lost in a Good Book the washerwoman and judge from the first part of Kafka’s The Trial appear. I have read Lost in a Good Book, and am now reading The Trial.

(Apologi..."

Sorry, it doesn’t work. The origin text wouldn’t ever work because they have to be created somewhere in order to be borrowed and it’s the borrowed character that is the key to this task. Since those characters were “born” in The Trial, they can’t be borrowed back to their original text….i hope that makes sense (my morning brain is struggling).

10.10 Group Reads

Bambi by Felix Salten

+10 Task
+10 LiT, translated from German
+10 Combo: 10.9 MPE page count 192; 20.2

Task total: 30
Season total: 615

10.1 Rewind to Winter

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.3 "Three" in title; 10.6, pub. 1934

Task total: 20
Season total: 585

Kim wrote: "For the herbs, if you have two books, one with 368 pages and one with 309 pages, and you use Rue/Chives/Rosemary for the first book, can you still use Peppermint/Chamomile for the second, disregard..."

Absolutely!

10.1 Rewind to Winter

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

+10 Task, read By the Pricking of My Thumbs last season
+5 Combo: 10.6, pub. 1936

Task total: 15
Season total: 565

30.1 Go for the Green Redux

Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen (820 Lexile)

+30 Task, set 95% in Lithuania
+15 Combo: 10.8, "fire"; 20.7, the smugglers traveled over the border from Lithuania into Prussia for a few days; 20.9, the book is about a small smuggling ring who were secretly distributing Lithuanian-language books to the people of Lithuania under the eyes and laws of the Russian occupiers...it was a small group secretly performing "criminal" acts

Task total: 45
Season total: 550

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "15.10 HDYGGG?

HDYGG Finisher, 45+ plants = 150"

Congrats on completing your garden!! (I'm behind on HDYGG updates, sorry this is so delayed)

Karen Michele wrote: "15.5 HDYGG?

The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavits

Herbs: page count = 336

3 = RUE "

RUE was already claimed in post 73. Plant total for this task is 4.