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

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

20.4 Robert Penn Warren

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

I am at a loss for words. Leave it to the man who brought us Our Town to leave me with a heart full to bursting.
It took me a second to get into this one...but once that bridge broke and you see the people falling and know that you're going to get their stories--ah! I was hooked!
Their stories are short (as is the book itself, weighing in at a measly 160 pages), but they pack a punch. The novel definitely felt constructed like a play, each act creating a distinct story that is yet connected to a larger whole and it also effected me the way a play does, leaving me with world-sized philosophical questions rather than questions about the mere characters. The end of this novel was very reminiscent of the final act in Our Town: the nature of love and death and life and the specificity of individual moments (which we so often take for granted) curls up in your lap like a secret-keeping cat for you to pet and consider and shed a few tears over until you have to push it off, stand up, and get to living again. 5 stars.

+20 Task (#115)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub. 1927)
+10 Combo: 10.2: 21 letters; 10.5: pub. 1927

Task total: 50
Season total: 185

10.3 Conjunctions

All of Us and Everything by Bridget Asher

I read this one because it's touted as being for fans of Nick Hornby, but upon completion I don't really see the correlation.
Augusta has always told her three daughters that their absent father is a spy and that's why they've never met him; they all just assume that she was a bit of a floozy and that they're all the result of random one night stands. The girls are now adults and out on their own, making right messes of their lives, when Hurricane Sandy hits and they all converge on their childhood home to help with clean up--but mostly because they really have nowhere else to go.
This was a total chick-lit beach read which is not normally my favorite, but it was entertaining enough and the writing wasn't awful.

+10 Task ("and")
+10 Review
+5 Combo: 10.4

Task total: 25
Season total: 135

20.7 Annie Dillard

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

This was a strange experience for me: I have lived in Utah for much of my life and remember seeing this case on the nightly news when I was little. There is only so much that can be fit into those small sound bites (and I was only 10 at the time), so much of this material was entirely new to me. The Lafferty brothers were narcissistic, megalomaniac zealots who were cuckoo for cocoa puffs--Krakauer presents the facts and backstory clearly and effectively in regards to the murders they perpetrated.
Making the rest of this a "spoiler" because it's long and probably not very interesting...(view spoiler)[I was also raised as a Mormon. I remember when this book first came out, we were discouraged from reading it. I didn't read it, not because we were asked not to (I've always been pretty contrary and don't like to be told what and what not to do) but because I was too busy and had no interest in reading non-fiction (I was in a fiction ONLY phase at that time, having only recently completed studies at university and was catching up on all the stories I'd had to set aside in favor of homework).
I've since parted ways with the church and discovered a love of reading non-fiction, so now seemed the perfect time to delve into Krakauer's book.
I can see why the leaders of the church worried about its membership being exposed to some of these ideas: while much of the book covers fringe/splinter groups that aren't even affiliated with the church itself, it does uncover some ugly facts about its founding that are normally glossed over by the modern-day church.
One thing, though, that I did take issue with: the statements the author made regarding members of the church being racist. I have NEVER encountered that in the mainstream church (I have been a member of congregations in Utah, California, and New York)--who knows what they espouse in the splinter groups, but he implied that it was taught from the pulpit in LDS chapels and that is just not true. I didn't like that he mixed opinion (and inflammatory opinion at that) with well-researched facts: it makes it seem as if his opinion is fact, and in this case he is way off base.
I also wish he would have made a greater distinction between the beliefs of the two different groups he was discussing: he would jump back and forth between the two and unless you were familiar with one or the other, you would start to group them together as one in the same. They are very different.
Sorry. Had to vent. (hide spoiler)]
Just a side note: in the author's notes at the end, he quotes Annie Dillard, which I found so fitting for this task :-)

+20 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2: 22 letters; 10.4: excluding subtitle; 10.6: 148k reviews, 4.0 avg stars; 10.8: covered the capture, imprisonment, and trial of Ron and Dan Lafferty)

Task total: 50
Season total: 110

10.8 Go to Jail

The Night Stalker by Philip Carlo

Every once in a blue moon, my husband gets a hankering to listen to an audiobook with me--as long as he gets to choose it. I know I'm in for either politics or true crime, thus...
Ooof. This one was a doozy. I was unfamiliar with this particular case and it was disturbing to say the least. In other true crime stories I've read the murderer will choose his victim carefully, often have a story to draw them into their wicked web, they definitely had a "type" of victim they were looking for and a specific M.O.
Richard Ramirez chose his victims randomly and killed them in a variety of ways, the only thing that connected them was that they happened while he was committing a robbery (some carjackings, but mostly home invasions--he tended to choose yellow houses). A good 2/3 of the book is spent detailing Ramirez's formative years, the crimes themselves, and talking a bit about the victims' lives. The remainder of the book details the capture of Ramirez and describes his crazy trial (an incompetent lawyer, an alternate juror who was in love with him and ended up being called to serve once another juror died) and sentence. I feel like the U.S. Justice system has gotten a little out of control when a confessed murderer can tie up the legal system for over a year and a half (!? I think I'm more sensitive to this as my husband has been serving on a jury for the past six weeks and still has two to go and I feel like that is A LOT, but to disrupt random people's lives for a year and a half!?) and MILLIONS of dollars to try this horror show of a human...seems like a bit of a circus.
(view spoiler)[The part I found most disturbing were the amount of groupies the guy had--young women would clog the halls of the courthouse trying to catch a glimpse of him, they'd spend hours at the prison in hopes of having some one-on-one time with him (he was limited to three visitors a day? week? I can't remember), he'd get piles of mail filled with letters of girls telling him the horrific things they wanted him to do to them, stuffing the letters with naked pictures of themselves. (hide spoiler)]
For fans of true crime, this is a thorough analysis of a truly mad man written in an engaging/enraging manner. For anyone else, this would just be a traumatizing experience and I'd say steer very clear.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (592 pages)
+5 Combo: 20.7

Task total: 30
Season total: 60

Would The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History work? From one reviewer: "Despite the disheartening nature of the topic, Kolbert writes with dry wit and gallows humor which (for me) always made an appearance at just the right time before things became too depressing. While there is a lot of science here, Kolbert keeps it accessible for those of us who don't while away our days reading scientific journals (you know, while our basic needs and consumer choices destroy everything around us), and her first person narrative keeps it from veering into textbook territory."

Also, would true crime work for this one. They're often told in narrative fashion, not at all dry or technical...I'm trying to find a spot for my carry-over book, The Night Stalker, which is definitely written with a dramatic flair :-/

20.9 Woman in Translation

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi

When I first read the description for this, it almost sounded like an Omani version of Fiddler on the Roof--focused on three sisters and their non-traditional marriage choices in a restrictive society. Nope.
This bounces all over in time and place, showing a country and society in flux. While the non-linear nature of the narrative was at times confusing (I could only find this as an audiobook at my library, which even further confuses things as you don't have the visual distinction of changing chapters to show a definitive change in direction), it was beautifully written and the way that the story blossoms is remarkable.
This was the first book originally written in Arabic to win the Man Booker International Prize and it was written by a woman. Impressive!

+20 Task (originally written in Arabic)
+10 Review

Task total: 30
Season total: 30

**Set in Oman, so that should make it green on our group project :-)**

For the four of diamonds, can the pronoun be found in the subtitle?

10.1 Thirst for More
The Dutch House

10.2 Letters

10.3 Conjunctions
All of Us and Everything

10.4 High Five Day

10.5 Sherlock Holmes

10.6 Richard Adams

10.7

10.8

10.9

10.10 Group Reads

20.1 Edmund Morris

20.2 August Wilson
The Color Purple (reading for IRL book club)

20.3 Theodore H. White

20.4 Robert Penn Warren
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Beautiful and Damned
Let the Great World Spin
The Cider House Rules
Revolutionary Road
The Bridge of San Luis Rey

20.5 Jeffrey Eugenides
Little Fires Everywhere

20.6 Katherine Anne Porter
Joyce Carol Oates
Jhumpa Lahiri
Meg Wolitzer
Jennifer Egan
Myla Goldberg
Zora Neale Hurston
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Curtis Sittenfeld

20.7 Annie Dillard
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know?

20.8

20.9 Woman in Translation
Celestial Bodies (Oman for group project)
Kitchen

20.10 It's a Mystery
Dorothy Sayers

Would Malcolm Gladwell’s books work here? I'm looking specifically at Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know for this season. I've read a couple of his books and I LOVE his writing style...reminds me a little of Bill Bryson in the way that he presents non-fiction in a relatable and entertaining manner...

Thank you so much, you guys! I can’t wait to get some of the books I have languishing on my wish list :-)

20.3 She Writes

Everything All at Once by Katrina Leno, 730 Lexile

+20 Task
+10 Female
+10 Combo (10.2; 10.9: pub 2017)

Task total: 40
Season total: 2420

Phew, finished it just under the wire! Thanks so much, mods, for another fantastic season!!

20.2 Freedom Season

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy, 710 Lexile

+20 Task (set in Texas)
+10 Female
+25 Combo (10.1: 5* from Natalie; 10.8; 10.9: pub 2015; 20.3; 20.6)

Task total: 55
Season total: 2380

10.5 Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy, 700 Lexile

+10 Task (debut)
+10 Female
+5 Combo: 10.9 pub. 2016

Task total: 25
Season total: 2325

20.7 Island Dreams

The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser, 770 Lexile

+20 Task (Set in Scotland, UK)
+10 Female
+10 Lost in Translation (orig. pub. in German)
+15 Combo (10.7: G/T Gläser/“The”; 10.9: pub 2015; 20.3)

Task total: 55
Season total: 2300

20.3 She Writes

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, 770 Lexile

+20 Task
+10 Female
+5 Combo 10.1: 5* from Jayme(the ghostreader)

Task total: 35
Season total: 2245

20.3 She Writes

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez, 730 Lexile

+20 Task
+10 Female
+25 Combo (10.1: 5* from Kendyl and Michelle; 10.2; 10.5: most recently published; 10.9: pub. 2017; 20.6: discrimination based on race and sexual orientation)

Task total: 55
Season total: 2210

Owlette wrote: "Two other authors, besides Chabon, that may have used Pittsburgh as a setting? I have not read their books: Stephen Chbosky, Kathleen George"

I loved Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I think i saw on the list for 20.4 also) and Chabon’s debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh will always hold a special place in my heart...

20.3 She Writes

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway—780 Lexile—I just found out about the reduced Lexile for this season...I have a stack of books I’ve been putting off because they’re <800...I need to start paying attention, I feel like such a dummy! And I need to read, like, a book a day to eat through that stack while they count! ;-D

+20 Task
+10 Female
+15 Combo (101: 5* from Tanya; 10.5: most recent novel; 10.9: pub. 2017)

Task total: 45
Season total: 2155

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "Would this be enough to qualify Circling the Sun for Sense of Place: "McLain is able to give readers a sense of colonial Kenya in the early 20th century that goes well..."

Thank you for finding the other sources to make it a "yes"--you're the best, Elizabeth!

20.3 She Writes

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

+20 Task
+10 Female
+25 Combo (10.1: 5* from Cassie and Angelbis; 10.7: C-P; 10.9: pub. 2015; 20.1: #473; 20.5: cleared in thread)

Task total: 55
Season total: 2110