Anika’s
Comments
(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,021-1,040 of 2,800
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
20.9 RtMPersepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Set in Tehran
Country: Iran
Continent: Asia
Marjane Satrapi was born in Tehran in 1969. This is the story of her childhood, of her experiences with political unrest and protest, of the violence and terror that she witnessed, of making her way to adolescence through the mire of religious and political barbed wire.
The art was simple and strong...it added so much to the story. I would highly recommend this, even to those who have never read a graphic novel. 5 stars.
+25 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 2770
20.8 RtMA Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Set in Athens
Country: Greece
Continent: Europe
I haven't done any Shakespeare this season, which is a departure for me. I love the Bard. I love reading/hearing his words because I always catch something new. However, I'm used to seeing him live in the summer: Shakespeare in the Park when I'm in NYC, an annual pilgrimage to the Utah Shakespearean Festival when I'm home, local productions in a pinch...and, yet, this year I've somehow managed to miss it all. So this was my single foray, on the last day of the summer.
Sadly, it was not my favorite performance (I listened to the L.A. Theatre Works production through Audible). Perhaps it would have been better seeing it? But listening to it became insufferable with all of the heaving breaths and uninspired delivery--as if they were just trying to get all the words out right rather than imbuing them with any meaning. Though Bottom was an exception: and what would Midsummer be without an exceptional Bottom!?
+25 Task
+5 Review
+5 Pre-'96 pub
Task total: 35
Season total: 2740
20.7 RtMPride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan
Set in Baghdad
Country: Iraq
Continent: Asia
“In April of 2003, four lions escaped the Baghdad Zoo during the bombing of Iraq.”
This is the imagined story told from the point of view of the animals. The art was beautiful, the story raw and wrenching. For a spare, simple story it packed a sizable punch, though there was definitely room to flesh it out a bit more…
+25 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 2705
20.6 RtMFuria by Yamile Saied Méndez
Set in Rosario
Country: Argentina
Continent: South America
Camilla "La Furia" Hassan has all of the secrets: she's the captain of a girl's football team; she's in love with her brother's best friend, who just happens to be a huge professional football star; she has hopes of moving to the US to further her football career.
The Camilla her family sees: dutiful, diligent student, but still just a daughter. Her mother is critical, her father abusive, her brother too wrapped up in his own dramas to be of any help.
Even though the romantic aspect took up more of the book than I was hoping, the story of this girl who has to have all of the courage to make something of her life was a worthwhile read. 3.5 stars.
+25 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 2680
20.5 RtMHomes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah
Set 75% in Homs
Country: Syria
Continent: Asia
Abu Bakr and his family fled the religious persecution they were facing in Iraq for the perceived safety of Syria (and a chance to get help from the UN to emigrate to the West) in 2010. Sadly, that was right at the onset of civil war in Syria, a war his family (parents, seven siblings, grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins who had all fled Iraq together) had no stakes in but were terrorized by every day.
His experiences with war were similar to other first-hand accounts I've read, but were shocking in that they were written from the point of view of a preadolescent child. The writing was simple (both his age and writing in English as a second language would account for this), the story both difficult and hard to put down. Gave an interesting insight to a part of the world and part of history that I'm not incredibly familiar with.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 2650
10.10 PCChildren of Blood and Bone (544 pages) by Tomi Adeyemi
This was going to be the first book in my third TDoS chain, but I soon realized I was running out of time and so I'm plugging it in here in hopes of completing a third PC chain: just wanted to shout-out to Katy and Tien, who were the two readers who gave this five-stars and were the start of my abandoned TDoS chain...I loved this and wholeheartedly agree with your ratings!
This YA fantasy series is one I've seen in the hands of many a reader, in all of the bookstore fronts, and on all of the "best of" Goodreads lists but I put it off because the Lexile was too low. Enter this glorious season of all-rules-out-the-window and I knew the time had come for me to see what all the fuss was about.
The fuss was well-deserved. The world building: on point. The characters: believable and relatable (except for the last 20% when Inan became a tool of the narrative rather than a believable character...grawr). The story: compelling and heart-pounding.
I especially appreciated in the afterword when the author explained that she wrote this book to deal with her anger and pain and frustration with the recent rash of police officer murders of African-American youths--I could sense her vibrant message throughout the story: "...we have the power to change the evils in the world. We've been knocked down for far too long. Now let's rise."
I loved it. 5 stars.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2625
10.8 PCIt's Kind of a Funny Story (444 pages) by Ned Vizzini
I wanted to like this one more...it was written after the author spent a month in a psychiatric ward for suicidal ideation (to which he eventually succumbed in 2013). It just fell so flat for me. I kept waiting for a big a-ha moment, I guess. The end was satisfactory, if a little unbelievable...I dunno, it was Girl, Interrupted told by the narrator of The Perks of Being a Wallflower but with less wit or action? Not my favorite :-(
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2610
20.4 RtMFlying Too High by Kerry Greenwood
Set in Melbourne
Country: Australia
Continent: Oceania
This second installment was almost more enjoyable than the first! I feel like that's a feat with a sophomore novel...
Phryne is up to her old tricks: driving too fast, sleeping with the handsome young things, solving crimes, and of course flying too high. Her character reminds me of a younger Muzzy (from Thoroughly Modern Millie and I absolutely adore her. I was happy to see that Dot is still around, as are Bert and Cec and think we might have added a couple more regulars with the Butlers--fingers crossed. What fun :-)
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 2595
20.1 SeriallyThe Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (20.2)
20.2 Anti-hero
Grendel by John Gardner
20.3 Ratings
20.4 Non-linear
20.5 Boomer
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker (20.2)
20.6 Awarded
20.7 Exophonic
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (20.6
10.4 PCBecoming Unbecoming (224 pages) by Una
This was the heaviest graphic novel I think I've ever read...
"Unbecoming explores gender violence, blame, shame, and social responsibility. Through image and text Una asks what it means to grow up in a culture where male violence goes unpunished and unquestioned." There were no better words to describe this, so I had to borrow it from the book description...
1977 Yorkshire, there's a serial killer on the loose. Luckily for him, he focuses on killing prostitutes so the police largely ignore it (DISGUSTING!). In the meantime, Una is navigating her way through childhood and into adolescence largely on her own (absent father, alcoholic mother) and when she is molested by a babysitter, she has no one to tell--and no one would believe her anyway: who would take the story of a ten-year-old girl over an adult man's insistence that she's lying? (DISGUSTING!) This paves the way to her being raped not many years later, and the condemnation of society begins: "slut," "whore," "you asked for it"...(also: DISGUSTING!)
It was equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating.
I liked that it was told in the form of graphic novel, as the pictures tell the story of how she's feeling and what is happening in a way that wouldn't be nearly as hard-hitting if it were only the prose.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2570
10.5 PCYou Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington (261 pages) by Alexis Coe
I've never read a biography of the first US President until now, and I'm glad I chose this one. I hate reading biographies which fawn and gawk at historical figures, understating their faults and shortcomings because we ALL have them and its disingenuous to pretend otherwise. My takeaway of these figures was definitely on the negative side: Mary was a wretched mother to all of her kids except George; George wasn't the noble and ever-virtuous man that every kid in America is taught to believe; Martha died on a REALLY bad note: Washington left express wishes in his will that his slaves should all be released upon her death...instead, she ignored this and divvied up their slaves between her grasping kids, tearing families apart. Blech. While the writing was informative and light, the stark facts left a bitter taste in my mouth.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2555
10.3 PCAmerican Vampire, Vol. 1 (192 pages) by Scott Snyder and Stephen King
I've read introductions to graphic novels by Stephen King, but this is the first one he's actually written for. Using characters created by Scott Snyder, King and Snyder alternate chapters in this series. Snyder's chapters take place in L.A. in the 1920s while King's are in the wild West of the late 1800s.
I appreciated that this was scary--these vampires are not your Anne Rice/Stephenie Meyer brand...these are Nosferatu-level creepers which are terrifying to behold. I loved that: I'm already in a fall reading mood, which inevitably has ghosts and ghoulies and all sorts of dark, creaky things popping up on the pages I seek out.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2540
10.1. PCKiller Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History (56 pages) by Jennifer Wright
A Study in Emerald (88 pages) by Neil Gaiman
I loved Wright's It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History and Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them: microhistories which are well-researched and wittily written. This short volume is about killer fashion trends, as in: fashion which has killed people. The vignettes are short--only a page per fashion statement--and they're accompanied by an Edward Gorey-esque illustration and a short poem. I think the only improvement would have been if the poems had been limericks instead...they would have fit the tone and rolled off the (brain)tongue a bit better than the four-line stanzas did.
A Study in Emerald is essentially the Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, with a Lovecraftian twist. I liked the idea of it, but the execution left me with so many questions...
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Season total: 2525
20.3 RtMThe Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
Set in Montreal
Country: Canada
Continent: North America
This is the story of Pierrot and Rose, orphans making their way through the world in the 1920s/30s. The Goodreads description for this book compares it to The Night Circus which I can kind of see...the magical realism, the lovely writing, the doomed love aspect.
There were parts I intensely loved, some passages that I had to add to my reading journal because they were *that good*, and the setting/mood was right up my alley. But: there were other aspects that were irksome/offputting (especially the nonstop focus on Pierrot's erections) that I could have done without. Overall, it was a four star read for me.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 2510
20.2 RtMPaper Girls, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan
Set in Cleveland, Ohio
Country: USA
Continent: North America
This story is getting weirder and weirder yet I can't quit it...I love the characters and am dying to see if they ever make it back to their normal existence in 1988. Again with this one it felt like it was an abrupt ending point, but of course that's intended so that the reader will run right out to get the next installment...and I know imma fall right into that trap ;-)
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 2485
20.1 RtMVanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
Set 95% in Paris
Country: France
Continent: Europe
I was looking for something light and easy to listen to while I was packing and readying the house to leave for the week. This seemed like it would have fit the bill: Paris--LOVE; tea shop--LOVE; magic--mostly LOVE. But OMG was it annoying.
Vanessa can read tea leaves. Like, for real. It's a gift that has popped up on the family tree every other generation for...well...generations. She hates her gift, finding it more of a curse (like when she told her cousin on her wedding day that she'd be divorced within a year because her husband wasn't just getting sashimi at his favorite sushi bar, if you get my drift). Her aunt Evelyn has the same gift, but instead of fighting it she has embraced it and has always wanted to teach Vanessa to do the same. She invites her to Paris to help her in her tea shop and to learn to control the family "gift".
I liked the magical aspect, it was fun, very Sarah Addison Allen.
I hated the relationship between Vanessa and Evelyn: never for one second felt believable.
I hated the way the romantic relationships went in this story: too absurd.
I LOVED the descriptions of Paris: the art, the food, the feel; and the writing wasn't *terrible* so it's a 2.5 for me which I'll probably round up.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 2460
