Anika’s
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(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 901-920 of 2,800
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
15.6 Central Asia, KyrgyzstanMother Earth by Chingiz Aitmatov
This is the short, simple story of Tolgonai, so beautifully and artfully told it feels like it should be a classic. It is a conversation between a woman at the end of her life with Mother Earth.
Tolgonai meets her husband while working on the collective farm. They fall in love under the Milky Way, marry, and quickly have three boys. For years, that is her life: her husband, her sons, the rich earth, the sky. Her middle son goes off to school to become a teacher. Her oldest eventually marries and he and his wife, Aliman, live with the rest of the family while they build their home. Tolgonai has always wanted a daughter and Aliman is more than happy to fill that role.
One day, while everyone is working in the fields, a rider barrels into town with disastrous news: war is coming.
I wish I could better define what it was that I found absolutely transcendent about this book--maybe it's because I don't normally expect a lot from translated books (I feel like so much of the poetry is lost in translation, which is def not the case with this book: poetry in spades!)?--but I'm at a loss for words.
It's a quick read, highly recommended.
+15 Task
+20 Bonus Country
+10 Nonwestern
+10 Review
Task total: 55
Season total: 410
20.9 BirthdaysThe Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
Southern magical realism (for lack of a better way to describe it) is like Southern food--filled with so many bad things that it can't help but being decadently good. It's a guilty pleasure. It's completely different from South American magical realism where I find the "magic" tends to be symbolic...Southern "magic" is more like a story's glitter, adding a bit of sparkle to an otherwise straightforward story. Sarah Addison Allen and Fannie Flagg filled that craving in the past. Now I've found a new literary-fried-twinkie with Karen Hawkins and her strange crowd in Dove Creek, North Carolina.
There's something about a book where you get to know everyone in a small town that speaks to me...it's a little like Louise Penny's Three Pines, just a lot less murdery.
I'm probably not going to scream from the rooftops that everyone should read this book, but I'll definitely be finding the next in the series.
+20 Task, "Grace unwrapped her piece of cake, broke off a corner, and popped it in her mouth."
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.4; 20.3
Task total: 40
Season total: 355
15.2 Western Africa, Burkina FasoOutlaw by Stephen Davies
This book was awesome--for my 15-year-old nephew.
Jake gets kicked out of his boarding school and is sent home to Burkina Faso, where his father is the British ambassador.
He and his sister end up getting kidnapped by The Chameleon, the man who some say is a terrorist but others call a modern-day Robin Hood. Cue the dramatic Indiana Jones-esque adventure, the kids-are-so-much-smarter-than-adults antics, the utterly unbelievable scrapes they can escape.
Every time the Chameleon speaks, he says it first in Fulfulde before saying it in English which gets real old real quick.
While I found myself rolling my eyes a fair amount, I DID enjoy reading about the country and the people who lived there.
So: I think any adolescent boy would adore this book, I'm just not the target audience.
+15 Task
+20 Bonus Country
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Season total: 315
15.8 South AsiaTales in Colour: And Other Stories by Kunzang Choden, Bhutan
This slim volume of short stories reads like a collection of strange fairy tales...yes, the themes in the women's lives (all of the stories are about women) are common to the modern world--navigating family relations, facing infidelity, alcoholism, figuring out the best way to parent, aging and illness, dealing with death, tradition vs modernity--the entirely foreign setting gives it a magical quality. All of the stories are set in rural villages in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan: a place remote and shadowed in my understanding, having no reference points in my brain which added to the mystical feel of the stories.
I enjoyed them, but couldn't read a lot in one shot.
Two things I will remember forever after reading this:
1) Apparently, the Bhutanese use melted butter the way Greeks (if you believe My Big Fat Greek Wedding) use Windex: put it on anything that hurts to make it better. Multiple stories featured drinking or rubbing on melted butter as a medicine. At one point, a woman with cancer is brought some butter mixed with a piece of bear gall bladder and is instructed to swallow some and rub the rest on her body to help with pain management.
2) "Ara" is the locally distilled alcohol...it's served hot with melted butter and scrambled/poached eggs mixed into it!?
+15 Task
+20 Bonus country
+10 Review
+10 Nonwestern
Task total: 55
Season total: 270
20.5 The Killer AngelsNeverhome by Laird Hunt
Constance knows someone from her farmstead must fight "the Secessionists." She also knows that her husband isn't suited for war. Constance decides she must become Ash, a young man headed to defend the Union. One character describes her story as Penelope embarking with the Argonauts as Odysseus keeps the home fires burning and that's exactly how it seems: there's battle, she encounters a sort of Circe, her husband encounters suitors of sorts while at home, the "Argonauts" make an appearance, and, like Odysseus, when Constance returns home she too returns in disguise.
I enjoyed this book so much and am so glad that it was suggested as a Group Reads selection--I don't think I ever would have found it otherwise.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.4; 10.10, thanks for the great suggestion, Lagullande!
Task total: 40
Season total: 215
20.4 The ReiversThe Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc
This series has been a delightful surprise. This is the third book from the series that I've read in a month...
I love his ingenuity at theft...to the point that the people who've been stolen from don't quite realize what they've lost. His ability to disguise himself is highlighted in this novel as he interacts with teenage detective, Isidore Beautrelet.
(view spoiler)
While we are introduced to Beutrelet, Ganimard and Holmes do make appearances (and appear buffoons to Lupin's brilliance)...it is strange to read Holmes written by a Doyle-contemporary--Leblanc's version is so much less likable than Doyle's (and that's saying something, because Doyle's isn't particularly "likable" at all).
I've got a lot of reading left this season so probably won't run out and grab the next installment, but look forward to finding a place for book 4 to fit next season!
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub. 1909)
+5 Combo: 20.1
Task total: 45
Season total: 175
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "post 11 Anika wrote: "15.4 Eastern Africa, UgandaChild of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji
Although Shenaaz Nanji is living in Canada, I cannot see that she has become a Canadian citizen, despite looking. We will list her as nonwestern for at least this season."
Thank you! I didn't even think to look at her citizenship--I just assumed that since she lives in Canada that she wouldn't count for nonwestern. I appreciate the extra points :-)
15.9 Southeast Asia, PhilippinesPatron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (840 Lexile)
Jay is a typical, mediocre American high school senior...barely got into his last-choice college, spends most of his time playing video games, coasting through his lasts few months of school before he heads to college to do the same for another few years. Spring break is just about to start and his plans are: video games with his friends.
Then he finds out that his cousin, Jun, has died...his cousin who felt like a brother, even though he lived half a world away.
Jay decides to fly to the Philippines for spring break to find out what exactly happened.
While it was *clearly* YA, I did enjoy learning more about the history of and current political situation in the Philippines.
+15 Task
+20 Bonus country
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Season total: 130
10.9 DualThe Undesired by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
In the 1970s, two boys were found dead at a juvenile detention center for boys, victims of asphyxiation from a blocked tailpipe causing exhaust to fill the car they were in.
Forty years later, the boys' home is under investigation and the deaths are being looked at more closely. The book opens with Odinn, the man in charge of the investigation, locked in a car with his daughter, the two of them nearing death from asphyxiation.
The timeline pops back and forth each chapter, slowly advancing the story as clues are slowly dropped along the way.
In the final pages of the story, I was absolutely shocked and surprised at how it all wrapped up! It's been a long time since I was that blindsided by an ending and I loved every second of it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.4; 20.3 (it doesn't ever say the name of the town, but it's in "rural Iceland" and it's clear from the story that it's not large and quite isolated)
Task total: 30
Season total: 75
Tien wrote: "Would these 2 qualify:Stanisław Lem - Born in Lviv (formerly Poland), Ukraine
Joseph Conrad - Born Born in Berdichev (formerly Poland), Ukraine"
I would say yes to any city that is currently within the borders of Ukraine, so yes to both of the authors you suggested.
(I lived in Lviv for two months, so definitely yes ;-) )
15.4 Eastern Africa, UgandaChild of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji
I had no idea that for nearly 100 years there was a sizable Indian population in Uganda--the British hired a workforce of Punjabi men to build the Uganda Railway and once the railroad was complete, they stayed. When Idi Amin rose to power, he gave the Indian population 90 days to leave. Those who stayed were interred in concentration camps.
This story takes place during those 90 days. Sabine was born in Uganda and her family are citizens--but they are of Indian ancestry. Her father runs a successful coffee plantation and feels they have no need to fear since they are citizens. Slowly, they see their world change as neighbors leave and those they thought were friends abandon them. They soon realize that regardless of their citizenship or their allegiance to and love for their country, it's not safe for them to stay. Now that the stakes and risks are high, will they all make it out alive?
While this wasn't the best written book or most compelling story, the history that I learned by reading it was absolutely worth it.
+15 Task
+20 Project Bonus
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Season total: 45
20.7 John AdamsThe Coroner's Daughter by Andrew Hughes
+20 Task, set in 1816
+25 Combo: 10.3, set 100% in Ireland; 10.6, hour = cORoner's daUgHter; 10.7, mystery, cultural, and historical; 20.4; 20.8
Task total: 45
Season total: 1825
Phew, finished that one just under the wire!
Can't wait to see you all next season :-)
20.8 Dead SeaMorning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
+20 Task
+10 Aged, b.1939
+15 Combo: 10.2, 144 pages; 10.6, minute = MorNIng ThE hoUse; 20.2, pub 1995 2,671 ratings
Task total: 45
Season total: 1780
10.9 DiscoveryThe Natural Colors Cookbook: Custom Hues For Your Fabrics Made Simple Using Food by Maggie Pate
+10 Task (it's not really a "cookbook"--only called that because it uses foodstuffs to create natural dyes!)
+5 Combo: 10.6, second = COlors maDE uSiNg
Task total: 15
Season total: 1735
10.9 DiscoveryModern Color--An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts by Kim Eichler-Messmer
+10 Task
+10 Combo: 10.2, 144 pages; 10.6, COlor aN illuStratED
Task total: 20
Season total: 1720
20.8 Dead SeaThe Door by Margaret Atwood
+20 Task
+10 Aged
+5 Combo: 10.2, 120 pages
Task total: 35
Season total: 1700
Congrats on your MegaFinish, Valerie!!
