Anika’s
Comments
(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,281-1,300 of 2,801
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "20.5 WineWine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James
I read parts of this as a hardback f..."
Shoot! I wasn’t even thinking :-/ sorry about that! Let’s move it to 20.4 so -5 Combo, new total 795?
20.4 SimilarWine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James
I read parts of this as a hardback from the library and listened to portions of it as read by the author--I feel like it fares better on the page. Regardless of how I received the story, I was more than impressed.
I always assume that people who are extremely knowledgeable in the wine world (especially those who reach the level of "sommelier") must have been raised in well-to-do households where wine was revered, have scads of discretionary income to buy cases of wine to teach their palate, and basically just be exceptional all-around people (I came to wine late in life and am always a little star-struck by people who can discuss it in a manner more intelligent than "dry," "sweet," or "oaky"). I realize that's an irrational assumption, but aren't most assumptions just that?
Victoria James was definitely not raised in a well-to-do household (she and her siblings would go days where all there was in the house to "eat" was pickle juice because her absent, tee-totaling mother and crazy, alcoholic father couldn't be bothered to take care of their kids). She definitely did not come from money (she started working at the age of thirteen. Once in high school, she started working at a diner where her shifts would sometimes last until 4 a.m. then she'd have to shower, nap, then head to school to do it all again). But she most certainly is exceptional. She has lived through some insanely difficult experiences yet always had the ability to learn and improve and raise up those around her on the way.
I love hearing stories of the restaurant industry in NYC, about wine tastings abroad, and about people's life experiences in general. This one was 4 stars for me.
+20 Task (similar to The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo (10.2 WGTOHATOAYSVJ: AGHAST; 10.8: USA, France, Chile, Italy)
Task total: 50
Season total: 795
10.1 Short WorksThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
This is only the second work I've read of Johnson's, but I'm recognizing some similar themes: memory plays a strong role; a definite strain of the "masculine" runs throughout (it was particularly apparent by the readers of this one: Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, Will Patton, and Liev Schreiber--all actors who are normally typecast to play epitomes of near-toxic masculinity); a preoccupation with death or at least the fleeting nature of this life; characters of questionable reliability; and, a very fluid timeline. Even though there were a couple of stories that weren't really my favorites, his writing is stellar and the story which gives this collection its title was fantastic...I listened to it twice just to make sure I didn't miss a single word. This was the final work published by the author before his death, which gives it an added element of gravitas. 4 stars.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 30
Season total: 740
10.5 Monster ReduxAll the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
Aficionados of Inspector Gamache rejoice! This newest installment is a triumph! I was a bit leery, seeing as we weren't going to be in Three Pines--no Clara, no Ruth, no Gabriel or Olivier, no Myrna...no swearing duck!? While I missed them terribly, we still get Gamache and his Reine-Marie with the entirety of their clan--and all of the delicious descriptions of decadent dishes. And death. We definitely get death. And intrigue and red herrings and the twistiest of twisty plot lines. (view spoiler) I think my only criticism would be of the audiobook reader--I hated the way he read Daniel (Gamache's son)...he sounded so snotty and irritating when doing that voice. That being said, I cannot wait for number seventeen to come out already...
+10 Task, "Devils"
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2 ATDAHLP: HALT; 10.8 France, Canada, Patagonia--which is co-"owned" by Chile and Argentina! I had no idea...; 20.5 lots of wine drunk while in France)
Task total: 35
Season total: 710
Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "In the completed thread Anika wrote: Sorry to dump these all at once: we had a giant wind storm here two weeks ago—hurricane-force winds (120+ mph), which is not normal for this area! We had three ..."Kathleen, it *had* to have been the same storm...it blew up Monday (Labor Day) night and all the damage was done between 5 and 7 a.m. Tuesday morning...the power outage wasn't the worst of it (we have a gas stove to cook on, all our food was in our camping coolers, and we have a wood-burning stove for the 40-degree mornings we had), it was the tree clean-up (that's my sister in the pic, she's 5'6" for scale). Our back yard looks like a lumber yard with the amount of tree rounds and sawdust that's back there and the neighbor's dogs are in our back yard all the time now since the fence was decimated and has yet to be fixed...
Hope you're faring well in Oregon! Every time I hear the news about the fires decimating the West Coast, my heart breaks...it's was one of the most beautiful regions of this country, all ash and rubble now :'-(
10.7 Non-FictionThe Darkest Night: The Murder of Innocence in a Small Town by Ron Franscell
This is the story of sisters Amy and Becky who lived in Casper, Wyoming, in 1973. Their mother asked them to run to the local grocery to grab a few items. This innocent, every-day request put them in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong moment that forever changed the lives of an entire town.
I am a fan of true crime, especially when the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice. Sadly, I don't feel like there was ever justice done in this case. The horror-show ringleader is still alive and well while every other person who was roped into his madness has suffered and died.
Apparently (because it is extensively excerpted in this book), this j@*#@$$ wrote an autobiography and WOW is it telling...he is not smart, entirely delusional, and the way he can twist a narrative was on par with someone else I read about recently in the book of political essays I just finished.
This wasn't my favorite true crime author, but the fact that these girls were his next-door neighbors growing up gave it a touching emotional context that no other author could have pulled off.
+10 Task (true crime)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo (10.2 TDNTMOIIASTRF: ATTRITION; 10.8 Wyoming, Montana, Arizona and more; 20.2 in goodreads bio it states he is "a lifelong journalist")
Task total: 40
Season total: 675
20.2 JournalistThe Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
"Stop doubting what you see right in front of your face."
This strong collection of essays had me cheering throughout. It dealt with serious issues (climate change, racism, feminism, abortion, politics, fat-shaming) interspersed with moments that had me laughing out loud (the essay entitled "Is Adam Sandler Funny?" was hilarious and spot on and when she called Guy Fieri "a human flip flop," I spit milk out my nose). This is the first I've read by West (despite her contributions to numerous publications and appearances on This American Life, all of which I've somehow missed), but I'm determined to grab her first collection of essays ASAP and wait on tenterhooks for more...
Just a couple more of my favorite quotes from this one:
"If we let trolls dictate the parameters of what's right and what's wrong, what's acceptable and what's taboo, we end up with Donald Trump as president."
"Personal storytelling is an engine of humanization, which is in turn an engine of empathy."
"If one was feeling uncharitable, one might describe the trumpet as a machine where you put in compressed air and divorce comes out."
Anyway, I highly recommend these essays to anyone moderate-to-left-leaning in their politics, any woman who has been judged by her looks rather than her abilities, any man who is an ally, and any person who has ever seen an Adam Sandler movie and thought, "Really? Why?" These essays are funny, smart, and searing. 5 stars.
+20 Task (has written for multiple publications including The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, GQ, and MSNBC)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+20 Combo (10.2: TWACLW: CLAW; 10.5, "Witches"; 10.7, essays; 10.8: Washington, New York, California and more)
Task total: 60
Season total: 635
10.2 Scrabble!The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
I really need to quit my IRL book club. I’ve been in it for a year and a half now and have read TWO new books…everything else has been a re-read, including this one. Not to say I didn’t love this book: I did. It’s just that I read it for the first time in MAY: recently enough that I remember the basics of the story but long enough in the past that I don’t recall it well enough to discuss it…
Starting this book is a little unsettling (even though I’ve already read it)—you feel a little unbalanced, like you’re missing something or not quite catching on and have to start and restart the book a couple of times…but then you just have to let yourself trust. It’s almost like learning how to float on your back: you feel as if you’re drowning and you fight it and water is getting in your mouth and up your nose and you’re sputtering and then you suddenly get the right arch to your back with arms and legs outstretched and you’re floating. That’s what this book feels like to me. A fight, a struggle, confusing and senseless until -CLICK- it all comes clear.
It’s told in a scattered timeline from three perspectives: that of a child who has been found to have powers that could decimate a city, of a woman who has lost her son and is determined to find her daughter, and of a young woman embarking on the beginning of her career (and what a strange and wonderful “career” it is).
That’s really all I can say because otherwise this would turn into a multi-page description/synopsis and none of us want that.
+10 Task, TFSNKJ: TSK
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total: 575
10.8 JetsetterThe Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
This. This I need to get a physical copy of to place on the shelf next to Harry Potter, Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, Every Heart a Doorway, Alice in Wonderland, His Dark Materials, and Stardust. It is the stuff that dreams are made of. It is childhood on a page. It is magic and sprawling and I didn’t want it to end. I loved the story-within-a-story aspect that propels our protagonist. The imagination that went into this story and these characters and the journey of the book…just so good. The writing is lovely, which is not something I can always say when it comes to Fantasy. (view spoiler)
+10 Task: Kentucky, Vermont, Maine (and soooo many more places)
+10 Review
+5 Combo: 10.2 TTTDOJAEH: JOTTED
Task total: 25
Season total: 555
10.4 PilgrimThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The leaves are starting to change and we’re getting cooler days—one morning when we had no power, it was freezing in the house and I lit the first fire of the season in our stove. Once all was warm and cozy, I knew it was time to break out this Washington Irving classic. The atmosphere he conjures in this book fit my mood precisely: a time and place that’s a little stuffy, a little rustic, a goofy character who takes himself far too seriously, and a terrifying moment on a covered bridge in New England. Yes, please, and thank you! I don’t quite know what it is about reading books from that era (Hawthorne, Thoreau, and even to a certain extent Alcott), but for me those books are best enjoyed in the fall. The story is great and the writing—underrated. I really should branch out to read more of his stories as I find I just read this one over and over and I really do love it so much…
+10 Task
+15 Oldies (pub. 1820)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2: TLOSHWI: WHILST; 20.5 “The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his lips as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment…”)
Task total: 45
Season total: 530
30.1 Go for the GreenThe Last Book by Zoran Živković
I found this one for free on Kindle Unlimited and thought I may as well throw it on my Kindle shelf. I wasn’t planning on reading it straight away…I didn’t really know anything about the book or author, just knew it was set in Serbia. Out of curiosity (and insomnia) I decided I’d read a few pages to see how I liked it: I ended up reading half of the book that night. The writing felt a little stilted at first, but I chalked that up to the translation.
A man has been found dead in a bookstore. A detective (who just so happens to have received his degree in literature) is sent to investigate. He meets the proprietress, they have fig tea, and the rest unfolds neatly: the kind of “neat” that you might encounter in an M.C. Escher piece. It bends and folds and makes your head hurt a little at the amount of meta going on, but it makes sense in a very convoluted way.
I really liked it, definitely “my kind” of mystery.
+30 Task, set 100% in Serbia
+20 “Blue” Country
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.4; 20.3—has written 30 100+ page books, both fic and non-fic; 20.10: born 1948)
Task total: 75
Season total: 485
Sorry to dump these all at once: we had a giant wind storm here two weeks ago—hurricane-force winds (120+ mph), which is not normal for this area! We had three 80-foot trees in our back yard blow over, taking out the power and cable lines (and the neighbor’s fence). It took eight days to get power and we JUST got our internet hooked back up!30.1 Go for the Green
Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
I haven’t read a ton of Christie, but every time I do I always end up asking myself why I don’t read more. There’s always a wonderful tangle of characters and motives to be unraveled and it’s done with spectacular panache—especially in the person of Hercule Poirot. I love that the people who have been killed are pretty villainous so you’re not all that sad they’re gone from the narrative (and you almost sympathize with the killer: “Thank heaven you had the gumption to knock that horrible character off!”). I don’t really know what else to say about this one…Christie’s books remind me of the New York Times Sunday Crossword: you put in the time, you figure out the puzzle inside the puzzle and feel a sudden thrill when it finally cracks, you finish it, you forget about it.
+30 Task, set 66% in Jordan
+20 “Blue” Country
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub. 1937)
+15 Combo (10.2 AWDAC: CAD; 10.8: Israel, Jordan, U.K.; 20.3)
Task total: 85
Season total: 410
20.4 Similar (to Zone One and The Nickel Boys)The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
This woman is a wizard of words.
I never thought I'd be dazzled by a book about a Ponzi scheme and the shipping industry but there it is. It also has a bit of a ghost story going on, but I knew that part was right up my alley.
As in Station Eleven (my Emily St. John Mandel gateway drug), the book isn't really about what is listed on the book flap as plot-points: it's about human experience and the mobius strip-nature of how we're all connected. I should not have chosen this as my Kindle-read-before-bed book...let's just say, I haven't been getting much sleep because I can't put the book down.
I think my favorite theme in the book was: what do you do when the rug is pulled out from under you? You've planned your whole life and think you're doing all the right things and then you're left with nothing: now what?
I know I'm not doing it justice, but I'm still a bit stunned in the aftermath...
+20 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2: TGHESM: THEM; 10.4; 10.8: Canada, U.S., Germany, U.K., Dubai and many others; 20.5: "Lenny paused to sip his wine" and so much more wine drinking)
Task total: 50
Season total: 320
30.1 Go for the GreenThe News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
This won the National Book Award in 2004...I mean, I kind of get it: it dabbles in magical realism and is based on a group of historical people/history that is not very well known, things which are well-regarded and interesting enough to elicit notice from the Award board, BUT:
It's magical realism lite, and not done very well. It's an obvious pastiche of One Hundred Years of Solitude: the sweeping saga spanning years that jumps from viewpoint to viewpoint, from the highest-ranking politically to lowliest servant, but I felt no attachment to or sympathy for any of the characters.
The writing is fine, but I've read so much better.
That being said: the subject matter was very interesting as I knew nothing about Paraguay or its bloody history. 3.5 stars.
+30 Task, set 93% in Paraguay
+20 "Blue" country
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8: France, Argentina, Paraguay; 20.5: sooo much wine and champagne)
Task total: 70
Season total: 270
The intent behind the task is real locales only. And either of your examples would work: as long as action happens in a minimum of three different countries/states, regardless of whether it's the same character visiting them or if it's three different people in those three places as long as at least three different countries/states appear in the book it would work.
Congrats, Valerie! New books for you! <3
30.1 Go for the GreenThe Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach
The First True Love Poem
A man with no arms
Is just a torso
And head
And legs
Unless his legs are missing too
In which case he is only a torso
And head
Which isn't a bad thing, really,
If he has someone
Who'll scratch his back for him
When it itches.
--Damon Denys
Our protagonist, Ivan, was born far too close to Chernobyl. As a result, he was born with no legs, one arm, and three fingers. And a head. A head filled with a mind that is sharp and curious and sometimes a bit of a dick. He lives in a "Hospital for Gravely Ill Children" and has his whole life, dumped there by anonymous parents. He has never left the hospital grounds in his seventeen years. He has a patchwork "family" which consists of the other residents of the hospital and Nurse Natalya, who is the closest thing to a mother he's ever had. One day, Polina comes to the hospital and Ivan's life goes haywire...
This book was a little bit Wonder a little bit The Fault in Our Stars (but better than either of those) with the attitude of Holden Caulfield, but a Holden who is obsessed with Russian literature and trapped in a misshapen and misunderstood body. And the writing is wonderful, really allowing Ivan to shine. While this book does have the "Romance" shelving on goodreads, don't let that distract you: it's about LOVE, about how we give our hearts away not only to those with whom we are in love, but to parents or parental stand-ins and to chosen family and, even sometimes, to utter strangers. Also, don't let the "Young Adult" shelving distract you either--while it is about young adults, I wouldn't consider this a YA novel.
I laughed out loud, I wept, I rolled my eyes, and even cringed a little bit. All of the feels. I loved it.
+30 Task, set 99% in Belarus
+20 "Blue" country
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 TILOIISS=TOILS; 10.4)
Task total: 70
Season total: 200
30.1 Go for the GreenThe Woman from Prague by Rob Hart
This was a fun listen (yes, another audiobook for me...it's gonna be all audiobooks all the time until I finish this quilt...except for the one Kindle book I've got going when I read before bed). I don't know if it was the writing or the exceptional reader that made it so enjoyable, but it was a hoot! It's all cloak-and-dagger-y, but with a definite tongue-in-cheek attitude: an amateur P.I. is running away from his messy life in the U.S. and finds himself in Prague. A strange man confronts him in his apartment and charges him with following a woman and taking from her the "bad thing" that she is soon to receive. Our intrepid P.I., Ash, isn't terribly interested but strange man has two goons with two guns to persuade him--and a tail on his mom back in NYC, which ultimately persuades him. Thus begins a mad rush of a story (with shout-outs to both Chandler and Christie) which culminates in a shoot-out to the soundtrack of Nena's classic '80s hit, "99 Luftballons."
Apparently this is book 4 in a series but it stood alone just fine.
+30 Task, 96% in Czech Republic
+20 "Blue" country
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.2: in his bio, it states "he's worked as a political reporter"; 20.7)
Task total: 70
Season total: 130
30.1 Go for the GreenManuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho
I've read quite a few books by this author and tend to like his books which actually have a plot far more than his philosophical/spiritual books (though, even his plot-driven books have more than a dash of the spiritual). This would fall firmly in the latter category.
The bulk of the book is the text of a lost manuscript written in Jerusalem in 1099, the words of a wise man on the eve of a battle which they know will turn into their slaughter. It is part psalm, part prayer, some beautiful wisdom, and (sadly) a whole lot of recycled greeting-card-sentiment.
It was a quick listen (if a little jarring listening to Jeremy Irons read it--his voice normally connotes "villain" in my head and this is supposed to be a spiritual leader imparting wisdom on the eve of certain destruction) and while some of it will stick with me a while, most of it was pretty forgettable.
+30 Task, set in Israel 97%
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2: MFIAPC=CAMP; 10.4; 20.3; 20.10: born 1947 and still kicking)
Task total: 60
Season total: 60
I am not used to looking for combos after the straightforward Summer season :-D Also: I'm so glad to get new books from the library and not be limited to what I have on hand, especially audiobooks--I have so many projects requiring my attention and I'm so happy to be able to listen to a book while I work on them :-) Phew! Happy Fall!!
10.2 Author NameThe Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
+10 Task (Gaiman = 6)
No Styles, Graphic Novel
Task total: 10
+200 Owned bonus
Season total: 2025
62/62 Owned prior to 6/1 (personal library)
Thanks for another wonderful season!
