Anika’s
Comments
(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,001-1,020 of 2,796
20.5 BoomerNot Dead Yet: The Memoir by Phil Collins
I hate grocery shopping with my husband. Why? Because the second we enter the store he begins his Phil Collins Rant: "I don't care how quick we make this trip, I know I'm going to hear Phil Collins. Phil Collins is the voice of shopping. He is ubiquitous, I don't care what store it is--convenience store, grocery, sporting goods--I know I'm gonna hear Collins and I HATE PHIL COLLINS." You get the gist. I always roll my eyes a little at him...and then "You'll Be in My Heart" or "Sussudio" starts playing and I have to admit he's right.
I, however, do not hate Phil Collins. I grew up in the '80s and remember long hours, waiting by my boombox with the radio playing waiting to hear (and record...oh the messy cassettes I made) "Take a Look at Me Now," "In the Air Tonight," or "Separate Lives." Years later when I started listening to This American Life, the episode where he helps Starlee Kine write a torch song became a favorite to which I've listened tens of times. He seems like a nice guy. He seems down to earth.
Listening to this book, narrated by the author, reinforces that idea...but also reveals that he is a fallible, messy mess. So: he's human, just like the rest of us.
I enjoyed hearing his stories of the music industry, of how he totally fan-boy-ed out when he met George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, and Robert Plant (to name only a few of the many people he ended up working with).
+20 Task (born 1951)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+15 Combo: 10.2, "Dead"; 20.3, 4.04 average rating; 20.9 "We get on the plane. 'Glass of champagne, Monsieur Collins?' 'Yeah, all right.'"
Task total: 55
Season total: 400
15.1 CoA, 9 lettersI'm Just a Person by Tig Notaro
+15 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 25
Season total: 345
10.1 TBRWill My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty
Oh, I loved this book so much!
Caitlin Doughty is a mortician based out of L.A. and this book answers all of the hilarious death-related questions asked by little kids, questions like: "if someone is trying to sell a house, do they have to tell the buyer someone died there?" and "what would happen to an astronaut body in space?" and, of course, "when I die, will my cat eat my eyeballs?"
Even though the humor might be a little old for kids (because of old-school references, not because it's racy), this book could be enjoyed equally by kids and adults. The science is fascinating, the writing entertaining, and the pictures introducing each chapter absolutely fantastic!
To give you a small taste:
"Did Grandma want a Viking funeral? If so, your grandmother sounds rad and I wish I had known her.
I'm afraid I have some terrible news. Not only is Grandma dead, but 'Viking funerals,' at least the Hollywood version of them, aren't real. You're picturing Grandma, the fallen warrior, her shrouded body laid solemnly upon her wooden boat. Your aunts push the noble craft into the sea. Your mom draws her bow, a flaming arrow arcs through the sky, hits Grandma, and sets her alight. She burns as bright in death as she did in life.
Alas, fake fake fakeity fake." Five huge stars.
+10 Task, been on my TBR since March 2020
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo: 10.2, "Dead"; 20.3, 4.11 average rating
Task total: 40
Season total: 320
10.4 Truth and ReconciliationIslands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
"The story is more factual than confessional and you notice the sparseness of his words. He's speaking in English and you wonder why. If he was speaking in your own language, the story would have been a poem instead of a newsletter."
The author's use of language--especially the use of her native Nishnaabemowin while giving little to no translation for the reader--peels back the layers of what it means to be colonized, what psychological toll it takes, and how to fight against the loss of identity. I switched reading back and forth between this and An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States--the facts and the feelings becoming intertwined--they were perfect companion texts.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo: 10.3, 20.3: 4.38 avg rating
Task total: 40
Season total: 280
20.3 RatingsAn Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
History as we know it, as taught to us in schools and history books, is certainly dictated by the victors. Thank heaven for people like Dunbar-Ortiz who can tell the other side of the story with such passion, clarity, and common sense to make one step back and see things from a perspective that is 180 degrees separated from the one that we were taught to be "true". I knew going into this that it was going to make me sad and angry and frustrated, and it did. But it was important and I'm so glad to have read it.
+20 Task, 4.37 avg. rating
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo: 10.3, 10.4
Task total: 50
Season total: 240
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "Will subtitles work? (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies)":-) Yes, you're good to go on subtitles!"
Yay! I need something funny about death about now.
(And thank you for your condolences, Elizabeth. <3 )
Shoot! Just saw these...my grandma passed away this week and it has been busy around here, getting ready for the funeral (she was 99, had a good life, we knew it was coming, but there's still a lot of work once it does happen...).I hadn't even thought of it when coming up with the task, but sure! I'm all for a main character veteran in a short story counting for this task.
Rebekah wrote: "This would work for service members in various other branches of military of other countries besides USA, right?"But absolutely yes to military from any country. It’s def not an America-centric task!
20.2 Anti-heroThe Shining by Stephen King
No wonder Stephen King was less-than-impressed with Kubrick's effort...the book is SOOOOOO much better!!
I was not expecting this, but this was THE BEST haunted "house" story I've ever read. The movie made it seem like the story was about a man's descent into madness; the book makes it very clear that the Overlook is the sinister force acting against the Torrance family. Of course the Overlook's power is a metaphor for alcoholism, but that's the beauty of a book, the layers of meaning are endless...
I could only read during the day because it was that scary for me.
(And damn the casting agents for the film: Shelley Duvall was disastrous in that film. I was glad to meet the book's Wendy Torrance, a woman I could understand and respect).
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 1001
+5 Jumbo (659 pages)
+35 Combo: 10.5--shelved as "Classics" 1,395 times; 10.6--Sept. 21; 10.7--Mr. Halloran is a US Army vet; 20.3--4.24 average rating; 20.4--bounces between past and present; 20.5--1947; 20.8
Task total: 80
Season total: 175
10.5 ClassicsLittle Birds by Anaïs Nin
+10 Task (shelved as "Classics" 118 times)
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 20
Season total: 95
15.8 CoA, 16-17 lettersMurder at Wedgefield Manor by Erica Ruth Neubauer
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Season total: 75
10.3 Back to SchoolThe Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price (carry over book...read 49% in summer season)
This is the most comprehensive history of the Vikings I have ever read...religion, daily life, raiding and conquering, farming and village life, their influence over three hundred years and a staggering amount of the world--from North America to the Asian steppe and everywhere in between--featuring all of the big names I first encountered watching History Channel's Vikings...I feel like I just audited an archaeology course, but by a really relatable and young prof who *wanted* his students to understand and connect with the material.
+10 Task (He is currently a professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Sweden)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.6--Sept 13; 20.3--4.21 avg rating)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Jumbo (656 pages)
Task total: 45
Season total: 60
I'm thinking The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel...it's shelved as "Mystery/Thriller" multiple times, and from a review: "Gavin, Sasha, Daniel, Jack, four high school friends and members of The Lola Quartet (a jazz group) are the focus of the story."
Awww, thanks so much everybody! I loved this season so much...I told myself I wasn't going to think about points or write reviews unless I had very strong feelings about what I'd read (which turned out to be *a lot* of feelings, so a lot of reviews), that it was all going to be about the reading...My one (huge) regret was not getting to a third series of Ten Degrees of Separation....I had it all planned out, created a chain that touched on as many of the RwS regulars as I could cram into it and then a fatally long library hold for the first book in my chain entirely derailed me :-( Sigh.
Can't wait to see you all in Fall!
10.9 PC5 Centimeters per Second (464 pages) by Makoto Shinkai
+10 Task
+100 Completion Bonus
Task total: 110
Season total: 3165
And that is that. I really hoped to finish each challenge three times...ended up one short but had THE BEST time doing it! I had so much fun with these tasks...thank you so much to the BEST MODS EVER for this unique season!
20.10 RtMThe Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen
Set in London
Country: England
Continent: Europe
+35 Task
+100 Finish
+50 Countries: Iran, Canada, Syria, Greece, England, France, USA, Iraq, Australia, Argentina
+100 Continents: Asia, North America, Europe, Oceania, South America
Task total: 285
Season total: 3055
