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

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Karen Michele wrote: "I'm also listening to the Gamache series and loved the Tim Curry Snickett series! I find that there are some books I like on audio (like Gamache) and just must listen to them if it's a series as yo..."

I love listening when I’m gardening!
Sometimes when I’m tending to different flower beds I’ll remember the book I was listening to when it was planted...so I have a garden of flowers that doubles as a growing library :-)

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "As to the narrator ...

I have a GR friend who is visually impaired, and so listens to audio exclusively. He reviews always include at least a sentence or two - sometimes more - about the narration..."

It really does make a huge difference and effects the way that you experience the book. I’ve read books I’ve loved and then listened to them and suddenly I don’t like the book nearly as well (narrator has the “wrong” voice/style of narration), but also had the opposite experience where I’ve read a book and not terribly enjoyed it then end up listening to it and the narrator is engaging and stresses things I didn’t give heed to in the reading and end up having a positive experience...It’s so interesting how the same words said aloud can have such a different effect on one. Also, when I find I’m having difficulty understanding a text (especially with Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc), hearing it spoken aloud helps things click in ways that are wondrous! I hear jokes amd foreshadowing in ways that words on the page don’t quite convey to my modern reader’s eye.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Do most/many of you listen to books instead of (or in addition to) reading them? I don't use audio. I listened to a book many years ago, but found my mind wandering and I missed a lot. Also, now I ..."

I’d say I’m about half and half—I love audio when I’m cooking/cleaning/walking/sewing/etc...basically, any time I don’t have the luxury of sitting down and reading an actual book/kindle I’m listening to a book. I find that when I listen to a book wearing headphones I can really immerse myself and have no problem with a wandering mind. Finding a book with an amazing reader makes a huge difference as well. I’ve listened to the entire Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series and can’t imagine those books in another format (and my gateway to audiobooks: Tim Curry reading the Lemony Snickett series—pure genius!).

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: ":-( I just looked - no hoopla for me."

:-( Bummer re: Hoopla but: Congrats on your digital hold coming through! It feels a little like Christmas every time I get a notification that a book I've been looking forward to is waiting for me ;-) Can't wait to read your review, it sounds like a fascinating book!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "OK. So what is hoopla? It's twice today I've heard it referenced."

https://www.hoopladigital.com

At my local library, it's a digital lending system that is available like Libby, Overdrive, etc. I love that it's another platform on which to borrow items when I've maxed out my checkouts on the other apps!

15.5 Blackjack

The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter by John E. Douglas

♣J (title has "J" or "K"="Killer")
♠J (name can be shortened to "Jack"=John) = 20
+5 Not-a-Novel

Task total: 20, 14 total cards used
Season total: 400

10.2 Letters

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

While I'm not amazed that women found their way to fight in the Civil War, I was amazed that the author found as much source material as she did for the women she highlighted here. She follows four women, two working for the Union cause and two Confederates, from the beginning to the final days of the conflict all based on journals and letters and even interviews with their descendants.
Some of it read like a history book, but not necessarily in a bad way: lots of facts, dates, etc. but I feel like I needed the brush-up as it's been a long time since I've had a U.S. History class and I've never been a fan of reading about this particular war.
I always enjoy a well-researched book about people/events who are brushed under the rug of history and this one was definitely worth reading.

+10 Task (23 letters)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (513 pages)
+5 Combo: 10.8--both Belle Boyd and Rose O'Neale Greenhow are imprisoned--and spying from their imprisonment--for much of the book

Task total: 30
Season total: 380

15.4 Blackjack

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames

♥4 (400-499 pages=464 pages)
♦7 (title begins with "S"="Seven")
♣8 (title+subtitle=8 words) = 19
+5 Female

Task total: 25, 12 cards used
Season total: 355

15.3 Blackjack

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

♦9 (set +75% in Commonwealth country=set 100% in U.K.)
♣10 (orig. pub. in '10s=2018)
+5 Female

Task total: 20, 9 cards used
Season total: 330

Lynn wrote: "Update on our last week. I am theoretically "distance teaching" my 8th Grade English class from home. I post voluntary assignments for the students online and they ignore them. Another English teac..."

It sounds like it worked out beautifully, if not exactly as your daughter had imagined. Congratulations to the newlyweds!

I just got done with a week at work--flights are being canceled left and right and I was so scared that I'd end up stuck on the East Coast (I'm based in New York, live in Utah). The largest load we had in my week at work was 51 passengers, lightest load was 8, average load was 14-16-ish--and these planes hold 162 passengers. I was wearing gloves and washing hands and wiping down everything that I could, but the anxiety (am I going to become infected? am I going to be able to get home? etc.) was such that I didn't get a single page read--and that's ALL I normally do in my downtime on the plane...

10.3 Conjunctions

Pill City: How Two Honor Roll Students Foiled the Feds and Built a Drug Empire by Kevin Deutsch

This was another one chosen by husband. It was very much like watching an episode of The Wire. You get the story from all sides: law enforcement, community activists, drug dealers, enforcers, and kingpins (in this case: a couple of nerdy kids who are *really* good with computers/navigating the dark web and who created a drug version of Grubhub to serve their customers), and the addicts who keep the gangs in business.
It was a disheartening look at the opioid epidemic in this country. It was dark and violent and utterly unbelievable at times. Unbelievable that this journalist was able to get this level of access--and there's the rub: controversy surrounds this book as to its truth (all you have to do is google "Kevin Deutsch veracity" and a slew of articles pop up, from Wikipedia to the Baltimore Sun, from BuzzFeed to Rolling Stone, picking apart the fake news constructed by Deutsch). It definitely read more like fiction--I would get very frustrated at times because the author (a *journalist*, no less) would narrate what someone is thinking/feeling--someone who is now dead and was at the time of writing...that isn't reporting, that's fabrication, which as far as I'm concerned is *fiction*.
I'm heading back to work and am so excited to be able to choose my own books for a while--no input from the husband, not gonna read anything chosen by my book club, just whatevs I want to read and I kinda can't wait!

+10 Task ("and" in the subtitle)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.7)

Task total: 25
Season total: 310

Re: Post 102

I'd like to move All of Us and Everything from 10.3 to 10.4. Points remain the same. Thank you!

20.1 Edmund Morris

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

This book so much reminded me of my first couple of years in college: the integrated biology and geology courses--there's a lot here about the birth of paleontology, about evolution, about the delicate balance that makes this world work that is no longer in balance. It read like a textbook at times, yet still tries to keep things light...it had to. Otherwise, it reads like a horror story. Species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate (there's a part that describes bats nudging their dead friends that had me in tears) and we have long ago passed the tipping point.
My main takeaways from this one: humans are horrible and the world is doomed because of homo sapiens. I had to take a nice long break in the middle of this one because it was too heavy to bear at times. The science is good--which makes it all the more depressing.

+20 Task (Pulitzer for General Nonfiction, 2015)
+10 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 285

Oh, Lynn...I know your daughter's wedding will be so special. It'll be beautiful to have it so intimate with just close family...the things that seem to make it "wrong" are often the things that make it most memorable. Sending you and yours all the love and good wishes...cheers to a beautiful wedding weekend <3

20.8 My Cup of Tea

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

I had a friend ask me what this book was about and all I could come up with in answer was: it's about a house and some of the people who once lived in it. That answer is precisely what it's about, but so insufficient to convey the wonder of this novel. It's part fairy tale (complete with an evil stepmother), part character study, part family drama, and entirely beautifully wrought.
A stunning symmetry to the characters (children and parents specifically) unfolds in the last half of the novel which would have come across as trite in the hands of a less-elegant author. Patchett has the greatest timing: knows the precise moment to conceal or reveal, when to elaborate on a topic and when a succinct sentence/paragraph/chapter will have the greatest impact. She creates the most stunning art with her words, this book (my sixth by her) is no exception.

+20 Task (at the 7% mark in the ebook: "...our mother was sitting in the kitchen drinking tea with Sandy and Jocelyn.")
+10 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 255

15.2 Blackjack

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell

♠2 (title/subtitle has the word "to," "too," or "two"="to")
♦4 (yours, mine, and ours="We")
♣5 (min page genre: any science=Psychology, Sociology)
♠K (title has a word ending in "ing"="Talking")=21
+5 Not-a-Novel

+20 Task

Task total: 20, 7 cards used
Season total: 225

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Thanks, Owlette. I thought I had answered a similar question, couldn't find it and went off to do other things.

Yes, Anika, you can use that here for the Science genre card."

Thanks, you two :-) I should have read the thread more closely!

I live in a state where there have been 5 confirmed cases and you'd think that it was straight-up Armageddon here! I just went to three different grocery stores and the shelves were bare of (obviously) hand sanitizer/wipes, clorox cleansers, etc. and (WHY?!) toilet paper, but they were also out of bread, pasta/pasta sauce, potatoes, most of the canned foods, milk, orange juice, the meat aisle had been picked clean...people are getting *crazy* up in here!
Meanwhile, I have to start working on a plane again next week and am not looking forward to it as there was already a confirmed case on my airline a couple of days ago. :-/
Ah well...if I end up quarantined, I suppose I'll have even more time to read ;-)

15.1 Blackjack

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

♠3 (3-word title)
♠8 (author born in "I" country=Ireland)
♦Q (set +75% in Western European country=Ireland) = 21
+5 Female

Task total: 20, 3 cards used
Season total: 205

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "For the MPG science, will "Psychology" work or are you looking more at the physical sciences?"

I would prefer to give a definitely answer for a specific book, so the answer now is "probably"

I'm trying to find a place for the book that I had originally hoped to use for 20.7 but it wasn't approved, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know...since it was considered too technical to be narrative non-fiction, I'm hoping that the "Psychology" and "Sociology" designations on the main GR page are enough to make it count for 5 of clubs, main page genre: any science?