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

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Bucket wrote: "Great! I'm excited to see Lesotho (and probably some others) turn green. I did notice one mistake when I was looking through the spreadsheet today. Central African Republic has 3 books, but is stil..."

Good catch on the C.A.R.--I read the third book and put it in the spreadsheet before the end of the season but left it orange in case anyone else wanted to read for the C.A.R. and get the bonus point for an "unfinished" country.
It has now been turned green, as have Lesotho (woot, Bucket!) and Namibia (yay, Valerie!).
All countries have been updated in the spreadsheet and in the "Countries Still to Go" thread.

15.2 SU24 Olympic Scavenger

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (had to speed listen to it to finish in time for book club...my library audio version finally arrived the day of book club yesterday. do not recommend listening to this one at 2x speed :-( was not nearly as satisfying as reading the actual book)

FOOTBALL Option B, find the exact word in the text: "Sam left Marx's office and went into his own office, where he was confronted by a Guernica-style massacre of Ichigo merchandise: disembodied heads with bowl haircuts, and chubby limbs, and round childish eyes, and wavews, and boats, and torsos in football jerseys."

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Season total: 30

15.1 SU24 Olympic Scavenger

The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary by William Shunn (carryover book, finished 49% last season)

BASKETBALL Option A, characters engage in the sport you're claiming: the missionaries play basketball at the church on their day off

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Season total: 15

Marie wrote: "Thanks for the answer on BINGO ! (i didn't think it'd raise such discussions, sorry ! :D)

I have yet another question: so for FA 23 How to Play Celebration of Styles, since graphic novels are allo..."

That is correct!

20.8 Temple Bar Pub

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

+20 Task, "Steve opens one of the ice-cold beers and calms himself down"
+5 Combo: 10.5

Task total: 25
Season total: 1560

10.8 Vietnam

The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John "Chick" Donohue

+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
+20 Combo: 20.1, made into a movie in 2022; 20.3, revolves around the events of the Vietnam War, describes the author's experience during the Tet Offensive; 20.8, a lot of beer was drunk; 20.10

Task total: 40
+50 Halfway Finish Bonus
+200 MegaFinish
Season total: 1535

20.3 Climate Policy

War by Bob Woodward

+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo: 20.10

Task total: 35
Halfway Finish: 50
Season total: 1245

20.2 Carbon Removal

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Many of the reviews I read about this book criticize the author...to quote from the first line of the top review: "You are a wealthy, highly educated person who went on a half-assed, anthropological slumming vacation."
I have to disagree. Yes, a wealthy, highly educated woman attempted to step into the world of the working poor for months at a time, trying her best to simulate circumstances so that she could better understand what it is to live paycheck to paycheck and be in constant extreme financial uncertainty....BUT she did it as one having a platform to call out the disparity and demonstrate it in a way that would make it more relatable for the demographic who'd be reading it. This is a story that NEEDS telling (and hearing and acting upon), but those who are living it don't have the time or means to write it.
Honestly, in these days of uncertainty and upheaval the main thing that went through my mind was, "There but for the grace of God go I."

+20 Task, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest (2001), ALA Alex Award (2002)
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 20.8, "Dinner is a quarter of a BBQ chicken from the supermarket, unsalted and washed down with a familiar, lowtech diuretic--beer.", 20.10
+10 Not-a-Novel

Task total: 50
Season total: 1160

15.10 CYOA2, Sci-Fi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai => Jabberwocky => Active RwS Member => Mem/Bio => <5K ratings => Historical Fiction

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Finish bonus: 100
Season total: 1110

Bucket wrote: "I just claimed points for Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman by Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya in post #458.

It's set in Lesotho and should turn t..."

Yay! Love it :-) We’ll be updating all countries added during this season on June 1, so you ‘ll see it reflected then 🤗

15.9 CYOA2, Sci-Fi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai => Jabberwocky => Active RwS Member => Mem/Bio => <5K ratings

The Slacker Pilgrim Guide to Camino de Santiago by Sunshine Jen

+15 Task, 75 reviews

Task total = 15
Season total = 1005

15.8 CYOA2, Sci-Fi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai => Jabberwocky => Active RwS Member => Mem/Bio

Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis

+15 Task

Task total = 15
Season total = 990

15.7 CYOA2, Sci-Fi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai => Jabberwocky => Active RwS Member

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

+15, given 5* by Karen Michele

Task total = 15
Season total = 975

15.6 CYOA2, Sci-Fi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai => Jabberwocky

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff

+15 Task, Novel in Verse

Task total: 15
Season total: 960

10.9 Surgery Best Wishes

Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James R. Doty

This is not what I had expected...I thought it was going to be stories about different cases he encountered as a neurosurgeon. Instead, it felt more like a reworking of The Secret--meditation, setting intention, opening your heart to the universe kind of stuff. While there was a bit about his time in medicine, it was more about his rotten childhood (when he learned The Secret-esque stuff from a kind old lady) and how he manifested becoming a surgeon and making boatloads of money.
While I enjoyed the first third of the book (while I'm not a huge fan of self-help or prosperity gospel mentality, I have been a longtime meditation practitioner and that was a lot of what is discussed early on in the book), the second half just felt like grandstanding and self-congratulation....it got old. Would probably only recommend this to my friend who only reads self-help :-/

+10 Task, main character is a neurosurgeon
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo: 20.8, "...his anxiety lessened by his drug of choice, whiskey."

Task total: 35
Season total: 945

10.10 Group Reads

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

This story felt very personal--my sister's oldest child came out as non-binary six years ago. Recently, they have started taking hormones. I've not been perfect in using their preferred prounouns, but I try. I can't say that I understand what they are experiencing, but this memoir has helped me have a better idea of what they are living with.
I very much appreciated hearing this story told in a completely relatable voice--being inside the author's head helped my empathy and understanding swell in a way that no other story/medium has done previously. I also appreciated hearing the points of view of those closest to the author...while they loved her, the change wasn't an easy thing to accept nor were they always perfect in their love and acceptance.
It was real and understandable and I'm so glad this book was chosen as a group read (thank you, Nick!), don't know if I would have found it in any other way.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo, 20.8 "I startled my father who was sipping Virginia Gentleman from a jelly jar." (Virginia Gentleman is a brand of bourbon whiskey)

Task total: 35
Season total: 910

20.10 True/False

Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre by Aaron Mahnke

+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel

Task total: 30
Season total: 875

10.4 Mother's Day

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

(view spoiler)[This book has been on my TBR since 1994...an excerpt was read at the first funeral I'd been to as an "adult" (I was 20 at the time, but it was the first time I'd been to the funeral of someone who was not related to me so it has stuck with me all this time)--all of that to say:
I knew there was going to be a death in this book, but I still wasn't ready for it when it happened. (hide spoiler)]
This book is all about Penelope Keeling: about her childhood and parents, about her youth during the war, about her children and their lives, and especially about her life beyond the bonds of those relationships.
I loved Penelope so much! She was witty and honest and good and real and I couldn't get enough of her--#lifegoals.

It did have some failings--most notably: the characters were pretty one-dimensional...if they were "bad" they had absolutely no redeeming qualities while if we're supposed to like them, they're near-angelic. Penelope herself was the only truly fleshed-out character, who was good but not perfect and who tried to be her best but sometimes failed.
Pilcher's description of place and art and the web of relationships she created was, despite these failings, infinitely readable and compelling. 3.5* rounded up to 4*.

+10 Task, #45 on the list
+10 Review
+5 Oldies, pub. 1987
+5 Jumbo, 544 pages
+5 Combo, 20.8, whiskey, scotch, and Guinness are drunk multiple times throughout the novel

Task total: 35
Season total: 845

15.5 CYOA2, SciFi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese => Shanghai

Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy

+15 Task, wAlkING witH SAm fatHer

Task total: 15
Season total: 810

15.4 CYOA2, SciFi/Fantasy => Ancient World => Drives => Chinese

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

+15, set 50% in China

Task total: 15
Season total: 795