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

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.8 TDoS

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Emilia => Steph

Maybe Anya's Ghost suffered an unfair assessment since I read this immediately upon finishing that one (my hold for Anya's Ghost just came through today, but I checked this one out a few weeks ago and it was due today so I had to read them quick!), but this one ticked all the boxes!
It's a series of short stories that are intense and atmospheric, it's like sitting around a campfire and telling ghost stories...
The art is perfect for these type of stories: spare and shadowy, favoring a red and black palette. I loved the writing. I didn't *love* one of the stories, but the rest were so strong that gets a 4.5-rounded-up-to-5 stars for me. Wish I hadn't already returned it...I'd love to read it again now that it's dark out...

+45 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 50
Season total: 1615

15.7 TDoS

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Bea => Emilia

Anya emigrated from Russia with her mother and brother when she was five. She doesn't really fit in at her school, has one friend (frenemy?), has a crush on a guy who has the perfect girlfriend already...one day she falls down an abandoned well. She lights up a cigarette to calm down and sees that she's not alone: there is a skeleton down there with her...and the ghost of the girl whose bones those are. After two days with only Emily the ghost for company, someone finally hears Anya's screams for help and she gets out of the well. When she gets home, she finds out that Emily has followed her...
The story felt a little bare-bones and didn't really connect to the characters, but there were a few freak-out moments and any graphic novel that can make my skin crawl isn't all bad.

+30 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 35
Season total: 1565

20.4 RtM

Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer

Set in Cairo
Country: Egypt
Continent: Africa

In food psychology, one of the ways you learn to like a food you dislike is "dedicating yourself to keep trying the rejected food until you find it prepared in a way you like."
Well, I used to think I wasn't a fan of murder mysteries...and then this group entered my life and I've since read a whole slew of them and I have to admit that they're growing on me...but I had to find them "prepared in a way [I] like."
This book would definitely fit in that category. It took a little bit from Christie (introducing a cast of characters right at the beginning in an atmospheric place), added a dash of Kerry Greenwood (1920s setting with bright young things aplenty and a strong main character full of wit and personality), and added a dash of romance to the mix.
Jane Wunderly is vacationing in Cairo with her aunt. The luxurious hotel at which they are staying hosts a colorful cast of characters and provides the backdrop for a smuggling ring, an illicit gambling den, and two murders.
The relationship between Jane and her aunt seemed odd and there were a few other weak points in the story, but overall I enjoyed it a great deal and will definitely pick up the next in the series. Four stars for this reader.

+20 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 25
Season total: 1530

Valerie! I'm so glad that you enjoyed Nimona as much as I did!!! Your review just made my day :-)

20.3 RtM

My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame

Set in Tokyo
Country: Japan
Continent: Asia

Thank you, Ann, for your review of this. It wasn't on my radar at all and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Can't wait for my library hold on volume two to finally arrive :-)
Stay-at-home dad Yaichi and his daughter, Kana, are going through the normal motions of life: breakfast, school, dinner, bath, sleep, repeat. One day, Mike shows up on their doorstep. Mike, the burly, hairy Canadian. Mike, the husband of Yaichi's estranged twin brother who has recently died. Yaichi's prejudice is slowly chiseled away by Kana's openness and acceptance.
I loved the delicate and gentle way that this story unfolds. Loved it.

+20 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 25
Season total: 1505

20.2 RtM

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Set in Warsaw
Country: Poland
Continent: Europe

I'm always awed to read the accounts of bravery during WWII, of ordinary people doing the right thing which is absolutely heroic in the face of insurmountable evil.
In the heart of Warsaw lies the zoo, filled with an enviable menagerie. Enter the Nazi bombs, followed by the onslaught of the army, and the animal population is decimated. What animals remain are taken by Hitler's zoologist, transported to Germany. In order to retain their home at the zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski turn part of the zoo into a pig farm. As time goes by and the invasion shows no sign of ending, the zoo takes on another function: a way station to help Jews from Warsaw's ghetto escape. When helping a Jew in any way was a shootable offense, this was an incredible risk to the Zabinski family...a risk they were more than willing to make.
It's stories like this that give me hope that there is yet good in humanity: in the darkness of horror, we can choose to bring light.

+20 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 25
Season total: 1480

10.6 PC

Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood (304 pages) by Cheryl Diamond

It's always hard for me to rate memoirs: you're rating not just the writing, but someone's *life*...
This one (as oft-mentioned by other reviewers) is reminiscent of Educated and The Glass Castle--the daughter of unbalanced, abusive parent/s has a strange and terrifying upbringing but in the end they escape the madness they were raised in.
The author (Crystal/Cheryl/Bahjan/Harbahjan) was born in New Zealand to "Brazilian" parents...though their Brazilian passports were fakes, along with the names on those passports. They are fugitives, hiding from Interpol and a slew of other people anxious to recoup some of the $2M swindled by her father. Her father, whose real name the author doesn't find out until she is an adult, has dragged her mother and her two siblings around the world several times over in this mad escape attempt.
Everyone in this story is repulsive: the abusive psychopathic father, the cipher mother, the wretched sister, the brother who begins sexually molesting her when she is still a child...blech. It was hard to sympathize with the author when she idolizes and makes excuses for these people...
It reads like fiction, so maybe that's why it's hard for me not to criticize it the way I would an entirely fabricated story--though you can't really tweak characters and plots when you're telling a true story. 3 stars.

+10 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 15
Season total: 1455

20.1 RtM

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium by Kieron Gillen

Set in London
Country: England
Continent: Europe

+20 Task

Task total: 20
Season total: 1440

10.9 PC

Code Name Verity (452 pages) by Elizabeth Wein

This was a reread for me (have a plan to read the sequel and wanted a refresh) and, boy, did it hold up.
A British spy has been caught on occupied-French soil. She is being held captive and interrogated and the first half of the book is her written "confession." The second half is from the point of view of the pilot who delivered her to France. It's about war and friendship and what is most important in life. I loved the writing and the construct of this novel and am really looking forward to reading the next installment in the series!

+10 Text
+5 Review

Task total: 15
Season total: 1420

10.4 PC

Quilting with a Modern Slant: People, Patterns, and Techniques Inspiring the Modern Quilt Community (224 pages) by Rachel May

I never thought I would get into something like quilting--I almost failed my sewing class in 7th grade...had to unpick every seam at least twice, struggled to sew a straight line, never really touched a sewing machine again. I'm good with a needle and thread but sit me in front of a machine and I'm hopeless.
Enter the pandemic lock-downs and suddenly I'm desperate for a new hobby to keep my mind occupied and lo and behold I'm suddenly obsessed with quilting...but not my grandma's quilts. Something new and artistic and free form and this book is all about that--the new "modern quilters," their backgrounds and inspirations, their art philosophy, their techniques. I learned a ton and feel inspired myself: win win.

+10 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 15
Season total: 1405

10.2 PC

Seed of Destruction (128 pages) by Mike Mignola

+10 Task
+5 pre-'96 (pub 1994)

Task total: 15
Season total: 1390

20.10 RtM

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Set in Copenhagen
Country: Denmark
Continent: Europe

I have a love/hate relationship with Nordic noir: not a fan of Jo Nesbo; loved the Yrsa Sigurðardóttir "Children's House" series; liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--but only the movies...couldn't get past chapter three in the book. Thought I'd give this series a chance...kinda regretted it.
Police Detective Carl Morck was at an incident where two fellow cops were shot and he feels responsible, can't get over it, so is useless at work and is dragging everyone down. They can't fire him so they move him into the equivalent of a broom closet in the basement, hand him a stack of cold cases, and try to forget he exists.
He has a messed up home life and not much in the way of a personality. The chapters about the investigation are shuffled with flashback chapters of the cold case he has decided to investigate: a young politician who disappeared from a ferry without a trace.
It had so much potential...mostly fell flat for me, and the casual racism and sexism thrown in result in two stars from this reader.

+35 Task
+5 Review
+100 Finish Bonus
+50 10 Countries (USA, Russia, Australia, France, Colombia, Kenya, Iraq, England, Canada, Denmark)
+100 6 Continents (North America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America, Africa)

Task total: 290
Season total: 1375

20.9 RtM

That Time I Loved You: Stories by Carrianne Leung

Set in Toronto
Country: Canada
Continent: North America

This series of connected stories, set in a Toronto suburb in the late '70s/early '80s, was fantastic. There are secrets behind every door of this sleepy subdivision and we get a peek inside--both into the homes and into the heads of the residents. This particular subdivision has had a rash of suicides and a murder so there is a lot going on in the collective psyche. The writing was lovely and it was hard to put this one down. Highly recommend.

+25 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 1085

I had crazy aspirations of completing all three challenges three times each…but work has been crazy and library holds are taking longer than normal, so don’t know if that’ll happen. I for sure think I’ll complete TDoS thrice and RtM and PC twice. Fingers crossed

I forgot to post on this thread when i finished/claimed When the Apricots Bloom…set 99% in Iraq. 🤗

15.6 TDoS

A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner

Adam => Bea

From the preface: "It has been most gratifying to see the graphic novel and many of its exceptional creators gradually become an accepted part of the book world. I couldn't find a major publisher to take A Contract With God only a quarter century ago, and now graphic novels represent the book industry's fastest growing genre." And that coming from one of the grandfathers of the graphic novel. Will Eisner has been in the business since the 1930s and in this graphic novel, he gives us a snapshot of Depression-era tenement life in the Bronx.
Graphic novels really have come into their own over the years and those were the stories I cut my teeth on...this one just didn't have the complexity and connection I was hoping for. I appreciated it for what it was, but each story was pretty depressing and completing it just left me feeling flat.

+30 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 35
Season total: 1055

Holy cow, Kathleen! I can't believe you can do it from memory! I have an entire notebook dedicated solely to RwS planning which I check and recheck and recheck and...yeah.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "10.8 PC

Clap When You Land (432 pages) by Elizabeth Acevedo

**This is set +60% in Dominican Republic...that should turn the DR green for our ...

Yay! Thank you for this!"


I get so excited every time I find a book that will help us get a little closer to completing our goal 🤗 Hopefully, I’ll be able to get at least one more in this season…

Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "15.5 TDoS

The City & the City by China Miéville

Anika —> Joanna

Review This is mental gymnastics wrapped in a detective story or vice versa. Mieville challenges the..."

I feel so bad having to say this, but I’ve never read this book…don’t even have it on my “want to read” shelf 😬

10.3 PC

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act (177 pages) by Kieron Gillen

+10 Task

Task total: 10
Season total: 1020

20.8 RtM

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Set in London
Country: England
Continent: Europe

Alexia Tarabotti is a spinster, half Italian (which makes her rather undesirable in Victorian England--too olive-skinned, too robust), and has no soul. No, really: no soul. Lucky for her, this is a great attribute in a society filled with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts! If she touches a non-human, she takes their power away: vampire fangs retract and they can walk in the sunlight, werewolves regain human form.
Alexia is headstrong, no-nonsense, and so funny...what a great heroine for this series. Her awkward friend, Ivy, is a crackup; her half-sisters, mother, and step-father are reminiscent of the Bennet clan (the girls are so Kitty and Lydia); the mystery she becomes involved in and the love story are compelling and well told. The writing is delightfully funny and I can't wait to read the next one in the series. Steampunk isn't normally high on my list; this author is a definite exception.

+25 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 1010

20.7 RtM

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

Set in Baghdad
Country: Iraq
Continent: Asia

Written by a former foreign correspondent who spent time in Baghdad, this is the suspenseful story of three women who are fighting for their lives, their children, the Truth.
Ally is the wife of an Australian diplomat. Huda is a secretary at the embassy. Rania was raised in the lap of luxury and now her fortunes have changed. The twists and turns of their relationships, their secrets, and the threats they live under create an intense story that doesn't release you from its grip until the last page.
I knew the reign of Saddam Hussein was not a good time for people of Iraq, but didn't realize how truly terrifying it must have been...the constant surveillance, the random visits by the mukhabarat--Hussein's secret police, the constant fear...unbearable.
I loved the characters, was fascinated by the history, appreciated the Big Ideas that were discussed, really liked the writing...4.5 stars.

+25 Task
+5 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 980

**Set 99% in Iraq, turning it green for the group project :-)**