Anika’s
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(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
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20.4 The ReiversThe Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
“I'm afraid I've done nothing at all to advance the plot."
"You chose to come away with me," Ned reminded her.
"So this is merely romance," she frowned disapprovingly. "I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least."
Ned laughed. "Darling, don't worry, the story has just begun.”
This was a little bit The Princess Bride (the humor, the piracy, the multiple-identitied hero) a little bit Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate (Victorian era fantasy, though not as steampunk as Carriger), a little Bridgerton (romantic romp), and a whole lot of swashbuckling fun.
In this one, the pirates are a society of ladies--witches?--who have flying houses instead of pirate ships in which to plunder the land.
Cecelia Bassingwaite is the niece and ward of one of the most prestigious members of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. One day, while walking and reading Wuthering Heights, she meets the man who has been paid to kill her. She is ecstatic! An assassin was hired for her! She might finally be of age to take a proper place in the Society at last! Not quite, she comes to find out. Explosions, tea with the Queen, literary allusions galore, and big reveals aplenty ensue and it was just a whole lot of fun...can't wait for the next installment.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.2, 10.4, 20.9--I don't have the exact quote as I was listening to the book, but Queen Victoria ate cake with her tea.
Task total: 45
Season total: 1085
20.1 PulitzerThe Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The more Doyle I read, the more I realize that I really don't like him and don't find his mysteries to be particularly strong. His strength, then, lies in his ability to create such full and unique characters that those characters have entered the imagination so entirely as to inhabit other and better stories than those of their creator.
This installment felt disjointed and entirely implausible, while at the same time being--dare I say it?--rather dull.
The book begins and ends with Holmes shooting up (cocaine, to be precise), and in the middle he is trying to solve the mystery of a stolen treasure that has been arriving in Mary Morstan's post piecemeal over that past several years. Watson instantly falls for Mary; Holmes goes down a rabbit hole to find his answers.
It has drugs! It has love! It has stolen jewels and gold from the Dark Continent! It should be so good...but it was merely *meh* for me.
+20 Task, pub. 1890
+10 Review
+5 Combo: 10.2
Task total: 35
Season total: 1040
20.10 Between the WarsDanger on the Atlantic by Erica Ruth Neubauer
This third (and presumably final) installment of the Jane Wunderly mysteries did the series proud. While it didn't have a whole lot of what I liked about the first book (exploration into the history and psyche of Jane, which really added to the understanding of the actions she took in the first book), it did have an interesting setting--aboard an ocean liner traveling from Southhampton to New York, the entire cast of characters trapped with nowhere to hide--and the mysteries multiplied rather than being laser-focused on one conundrum.
It's 1926 and Jane and Revers are posing as a married couple to flush out a German spy--is it the captain? the charming German bon vivant? could it be someone else entirely? Jane ends up becoming friends with a wealthy newlywed American woman whose husband has disappeared, but on a ship there is nowhere to hide so what has become of him?
So many questions and red herrings and lovely dresses and art deco details, it was thoroughly enjoyable.
+20 Task, set entirely in 1926
+10 Review
+5 Combo: 10.4
Task total: 35
Season total: 1005
20.6 The Color PurpleThe Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
There was a task back in Fall 2020, "BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime was first broadcast in 1949. The programme is still aired every weekday evening and presents abridged readings of fiction from classic novels to contemporary bestsellers. Read a book that appears on this list of books featured on Book at Bedtime," that I still think about. I loved that task and I loved everything I've read off of the list of suggested books.
When looking at the list for this task, the first book that popped out at me was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4, which I remembered from the BBC Book at Bedtime list. I was curious what was so good about it...
I actually quite enjoyed this. It was filled with quintessential British humor, gives you an interesting snapshot of history (the Falklands War, Diana and Charles' wedding, the economic slump and massive unemployment under Maggie Thatcher), and reminds you how really brutal it is being 13/14. It was a quick and easy read that made me chuckle.
+20 Task
+10 Task
+5 Oldies (pub 1982)
+15 Combo: 10.2, 10.4, 20.9 "Mr. Lucas came for dinner and stayed for tea. He ate three slices of the black forest cake."
Task total: 50
Season total: 965
10.6 Space OutProject Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I really loved The Martian, but Project Hail Mary eclipsed that handily. Wow...just: wow.
Ryland Grace wakes up and doesn't know where he is, doesn't know his own name, doesn't know much of anything other than there's a computer talking to him and robotic arms are moving him around. The computer voice starts asking him questions and with the questions, his brain starts answering things that he doesn't "know". He realizes he's in space, the Earth is in danger, and he's the only person who has a chance of saving it.
As in The Martian, this book is filled with sound science and hypothetical scientific thought that seems sound...
(view spoiler)
I would definitely recommend the audiobook--there were parts that I have no idea how they could possibly be conveyed in print.
This was SO GOOD!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo, 10.4
Task total: 25
Season total: 915
10.5 Database AnniversaryReady Player Two by Ernest Cline
I absolutely adored Ready Player One--its '80s nostalgia, its inventiveness, its game-like plot so similar to a quest-type game like Legend of Zelda or The Battle of Olympus...games I loved when I was little. I had such high hopes for the sequel and sadly felt rather let-down. Wade, the main character, has become such a jerk (was he always? he might have been...I was rather intent on seeing how they were going to complete the quest and not so much on the character's qualities) in this book, just infinitely unlikable. The quests he ends up going on are...okay-ish.
Such a disappointment: when I finished Ready Player One I was hoping for more--but this was not the "more" I was hoping for.
+10 Task, everything happens in the OASIS, a virtual computer-based reality
+10 Review
+5 Combo: 20.8, author lives in Austin, TX
Task total: 25
Season total: 890
10.4 NameEveryone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin
Gilda is an anxious wreck. She's so busy overthinking everything, her life has rather gotten away from her: she ends up working as a receptionist for a priest even though she's a lesbian atheist; she unwittingly ends up dating a man; (view spoiler) It's equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking being inside of her head, hearing the obsessive thoughts swimming around in her brain. A lot of other readers were comparing her to Eleanor Oliphant and I can see that, yet she's completely different. Millennial anxiety has a different flavor altogether, I've realized as seeing my niece struggle with it and this book caught that perennial angst. I enjoyed it but felt it was just okay--until the final pages which reduced me to a blubbering mess and it really came together.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.2, 20.9 "Barney shovels more lemon cake into his mouth."
Task total: 30
Season total: 865
10.1 PopularThe Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
For eleven days in 1962, Agatha Christie disappeared. When she was finally found and until the end of her life, she maintained that she didn't remember anything about that time. Nina de Gramont takes those days and imagines a false history that seems entirely feasible while also incorporating a mystery worthy of anything that Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot ever encountered. While parts of it were told from different points of view--Agatha, her philandering husband Archie, a police inspector searching for Agatha--most of it is told from the point of view of Nan, Archie's mistress.
I enjoyed this book SO MUCH--I think the only think I was left wanting was an afterword from the author, discussing what IS actually known about the incident in contrast to what she invented.
Absolutely recommended.
+10 Task, #24 on my 2022 list
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.4, 20.10
Task total: 30
Season total: 835
re post 435 20.8 Texas IndependenceQueen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I'd like to move that book to 20.7 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, please. No change in points.
Thank you!
20.8 Texas Independence iZombie, Vol. 2: uVampire by Chris Roberson
+20 Task
graphic novel, no styles
Task total: 20
Season total: 805
20.8 Texas Independence iZombie, Vol. 1: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson
+20 Task, author lives in Austin, TX
graphic novel, no styles
Task total: 20
Season total: 785
20.3 Our TownCrimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
This play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1981 and my only reaction to that is: wait, what?!
For me, it boiled down to three infinitely unlikable sisters: Lenny, the martyr, the one who kept complaining about her "shriveled ovary"; Meg, the one who ran off to Hollywood to try to become a singer and ended up a receptionist yet lies to everyone about her artistic accomplishments; and Babe, who has been having an affair with a fifteen-year-old, shoots her husband and then offers him lemonade while he's on the ground bleeding out.
Nope. I don't feel anything for these characters or their situations.
It wasn't until the end, when Babe has her head stuck in the oven in a ridiculous attempt to kill herself, that I remembered seeing the movie version of this waaaay back in the day--and I didn't like it then, either. Thank heaven it was short...
+20 Task, set in a small Mississippi town
+10 Review
+5 Oldies
+15 Combo: 10.4; 20.2; 20.9 "LENNY (Laughing joyously as she licks icing from her fingers and cuts huge pieces of cake that her sisters bite into ravenously.) I do love having birthday cake for breakfast! How I do!"
Task total: 50
Season total: 760
10.2 EasterThe Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan
William Sweeney, the renowned author (who I kept envisioning as a cross between Hemingway and John Irving) has died. He has left his three daughters with a ramshackle house, a pile of debt, and a hidden memoir.
Liza, the oldest, has never left Southport. She married a safe-bet kinda guy, had a couple kids, and opened an art gallery all to be able to stay near her father and take care of him as he gets older.
Maggie, "Mad Maggie," is a bohemian artist with a depressive bent. She has never stayed in one place long and the only thing that you can be certain of with her is her unreliability.
Tricia, the youngest, is a New York lawyer. She is responsible, intelligent, bad-ass, but somewhat robotic and emotionally stunted.
They come together to take care of the mountain of things that appear when someone passes away--most pressingly, to find The Memoir: if it is not produced, his publishing house is threatening litigation.
While this is definitely a fluffy, beach read, I liked that there were twists and some attempt to make it something more than a mindless romance--though it did tie everything up with pretty bows at the end. It was fun to read at the time, but I've already forgotten it so: meh?
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.4; 20.3; 20.9, "Immediately, Tricia was struck by the familiarity of the scene: two sisters, sitting across the kitchen table drinking coffee and eating Entenmann's while the sun streamed through the big picture window...Liza, uncomfortable with the content of the conversation, organized a plate of lemon cookies to go with the marble loaf cake [the marble loaf cake being the Entenmann's being eaten with the coffee]."
Task total: 35
Season total: 710
20.2 PrizeVersed by Rae Armantrout
I try to read as diversely as possible for these tasks, attempting to read at least one volume of poetry, a play, some short stories, and a balanced mix of fiction and non-fiction. Normally, I look forward to the poetry and devour it in one sitting. It's an emotional explosion, with ground zero being the idea behind the collection while the painstakingly chosen words and images in each poem are the shrapnel. It engages me in a way that a novel can't: it requires my attention and involvement to unravel its meaning.
Versed was not my usual experience. It took me two weeks to finish. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace? It just wasn't making ANY sense to me. I wasn't interested or engaged. Her words were going right over my head and as hard as I tried, I felt nothing. Until the halfway point...then I couldn't put it down. Then the words were punching me in the gut and I had my "a ha" and I entirely understood why this was a Pulitzer winner.
+20 Task, 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
+10 Review
+5 Combo 10.4
Task total: 35
Season total: 675
20.8 Texas IndependenceQueen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I've read several books by this author and loved them all. This was my least favorite to date.
Normally, her characters are so vibrant and true and utterly believable...in this one I felt that several of her characters made decisions that just didn't ring true and their wishy-washy nature weakened the entire story.
In other books of hers (The Palace of Illusions and One Amazing Thing in particular), there were clear themes the author was conveying and she did it on multiple levels, reinforcing and invigorating it with the characters and plot progression and little details that made the books shine. This one felt all over the place, with no clear direction or overarching idea, even throwing in a big plot bomb right at the end with no real resolution.
While I can wholeheartedly recommend this author, I don't think I'd ever recommend picking up this title.
+20 Task, Banerjee lives in Houston
+10 Review
+5 Combo, 20.7, born in Kolkata
Task total: 35
Season total: 640
15.5 Southern Africa, SwazilandWhen the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn, Lexile 830
This was another one that def felt super YA to me...but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Adele was one of the popular (mean?) girls at Keziah Christian Academy...until a richer girl usurped her spot. Adele is demoted, given a roommate that is poorer and nowhere near as prestigious as her former cohort: Lottie, the school pariah. Go figure, Lottie is smarter and sassier and far more interesting than Adele could ever have imagined.
I love that they bonded over Jane Eyre. I loved that so much of the book reflected Jane Eyre--you have a mentally imbalanced person, a fire happens, and so much of Jane's young life is represented in their school days. It was an interesting peek into the world of Swaziland in the mid-60s. The writing wasn't terribly challenging, but the story was compelling enough to make this a worthwhile read.
+15 Task
+20 Bonus country
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Season total: 605
10.8 Ukraine Has Not Yet PerishedThe Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy
Yes, it has taken me almost a month to complete this book--thanks, Hoopla, for crashing and it took me an age to figure out how to fix it so I could finally listen again! This book covers the history of Ukraine from the discovery of the land by the Vikings (~960 CE) to 2015.
My takeaway? The people have Ukraine have been in constant battle to maintain their homeland from invaders, whether from the Mongol horde, the Ottoman Empire, the Poles, the Russians...this people with a vibrant and rich culture are in constant battle for their existence.
Ukraine has 1/3 of the world's black soil (it's called "the breadbasket of Europe for a reason), it's population in 98% literate, has one of the highest percentage of college graduates in technology and engineering in the world. It's a gem. A gem that Putin is set on possessing. I want Putin to die. A bloody death. The people of Ukraine deserve peace already. I don't remember a ton from the first half of the book, since I listened to it weeks ago, but my takeaway from the last half is that the people of Ukraine are strong and involved and not afraid of the bullies who want to take their land for nefarious purposes. This was a fascinating and comprehensive history of a rich land and a proud people and I'm very interested to see how their history progresses.
+10 Task, set 100% in Ukraine
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total: 560
15.1 Northern Africa, LibyaChewing Gum by Mansour Bushnaf
This is such a short book yet took me so long to get through :-/
I know I missed A LOT of the symbolism and the meaning that would have been gleaned by someone from Libya, but I still appreciated it (though DEFINITELY did not love it).
The writing was lovely and lyrical at times, journalistic at others.
Something about this book reminded me of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler--it has an otherworldly feel and right when I think the author and I are on the same page, I get thrown for a massive loop and realize I'm stumbling in the dark again.
The story starts in a refuse-littered park, with Mukhtar down on his knees as he watches Fatma, the love of his life, walk away in her black coat and red scarf and her hair flowing. Mukhtar doesn't move from this spot, frozen in time, for over ten years. This chapter creates a snapshot in time and much like a snapshot, there are strangers strolling through the background.
Each subsequent chapter examines an aspect of this snapshot, from the refuse to the strolling strangers and extends out to Mukhtar and Fatma's parents (for without them, there would be no Mukhtar or Fatma).
It was an interesting read, but I feel like I would have gotten more out of it had I read it in a book club or uni class so that I had other people with whom to discuss and unpack it.
+15 Task
+20 Bonus country
+10 Non-Western
+10 Review
Task total: 55
Season total: 540
10.10 Group ReadsWhen All Is Said by [author:Anne Griffin|18098856
What a glorious novel...
Maurice Hannigan, 84, has rented the finest room in the local hotel (the honeymoon suite) and has parked himself at the hotel bar to drink five drinks. Five drinks to toast the five people who have made him the man he is. With each person he toasts, he takes us on a trip down memory lane to show why that person means so much to him...we also get a snapshot of Maurice in each stage of his life, as well as a glimpse of the town and its inhabitants and how they mold and shape him as well. It reveals how not just love, but pain and hate and revenge have
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo: 10.4, 20.3, 20.9 "We finished our meal with a choice of apple tart or Madeira cake. Sadie tried both."
Task total: 35
Season total: 485
10.3 ShakespeareDeath on the Nile by Agatha Christie
I made the mistake of watching the movie before reading the book--I was on hold for it at the library and it hadn't come in yet but my husband wanted to go to a movie (how nice to be able to again!) and that was his pick. It was a great film! Fantastic acting, gorgeous scenery, stunning costumes, edge-of-your-seat storytelling...but NOT true to the book, as I came to realize when it finally came through at the library.
I think I would have enjoyed the book more (more red-herrings, more things to distract and confuse, more smoke and mirrors than were in the film) had I not constantly been trying to figure out who was supposed to be whom in the film...let's just say that the character list in the book does not at all match up with the cast list in the film--(view spoiler)
I quite enjoyed this installment of Poirot's adventures, told with a wink and a chuckle in what I'm coming to realize is typical Christie style.
+10 Task, #151 on the list
+10 Review
+10 Oldies, pub 1937
+5 Combo, 20.10
Task total: 35
Season total: 450
