Anika’s
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(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,541-1,560 of 2,801
15.4 PnM2, Round 2The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
+15 Task, F2
Task total: 15
Season total: 1890
15.3 PnM2, Round 2The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena by Jean-Paul Kauffmann
+15 Task, D4 Non-fiction
Task total: 15
Season total: 1875
*Set in St. Helena, for the Group Project
20.8 Periodic TableA History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
I love a good microhistory, following just one theme and how that one thing has effected civilization (such as The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements which looks at world history through the lens of chemistry or Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them which looks at the things that potentially kill us off as a species and how we fight them). This one made me thirsty the whole time I was reading it: history as influenced by innovations in drink. The first half of the book is a boozy treat, discussing the roles played by beer, wine, and distilled liquor. The second half gets your blood pumping with caffeinated libations: coffee, tea, and cola. The roles that these beverages play in economy (beer was anciently used as a form of currency! and the British Empire wouldn't be what it is today without the popularity of tea), war (Boston Tea Party, anyone?), disease (sparkling/mineral water, and later Coca-Cola, were used to combat illness; grog, or beer that had been mixed with spices and fruit juices--notably lime, was part of the daily ration for British sailors in the late-18th Century and kept them from scurvy), and addiction (and not to alcohol, as one might imagine, but rather the opioid crisis in early-18th Century China that was propagated by the British to leverage tea prices). Some things that the author attributes to a beverage felt like a stretch to further his thesis, but on the whole I quite enjoyed this walk through history with a glass in my hand. 3.5 stars.
+20 Task (Ts=Tennessine)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.5)
Task total: 45
Season total: 1860
15.2 PnM2, Round 2The Outsider by Stephen King
+15 Task, C6 Multiple POVs
Task total: 15
Season total: 1815
15.1 PnM2, Round 2 The Woodcutter by Kate Danley
I'd already written a review before deciding to attempt a second round of the subchallenge. I quite enjoyed this book and am including the review if you're at all interested in this book, for lovers of fairy tales and magic:
(view spoiler)
+15 Task: D1, fantasy
Task total: 15
Season total: 1800
10.7 A, E, I, O, U Sometimes YThe Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous
This was a strange experience: at times it felt very familiar (Noah and the flood, David and Jonathan, David and Goliath, and what seemed almost like a golem for good measure) and at other times so extremely foreign (Gilgamesh enslaving the men and essentially raping the women--he bedded all brides on their wedding night before their husbands could "know" them; the women who served at the temple by giving their bodies to any man who asked--though I think I've also encountered that in Greek or Egyptian pantheon unless I'm mistaken).
I definitely enjoyed the commentary on the poem more than the poem itself: the way in which it was discovered, the historical relevance, the strangeness of reading something written over 4,000 years ago and still being able to relate/understand...I'm glad I read it for that alone.
+10 Task (A, O, Y, U)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel (epic poem)
+25 Oldies (first pub. -2100)
Task total: 55
Season total: 1785
20.4 BoomerPandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul A. Offit
Oh, the random facts I glean from non-fiction books! Such as how morphine and heroin were named, how heroin got the nickname "smack", the fact that after William H. Taft served as president he went on to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and how many scientists (and "scientists") have very similar names which explains why I get them and their work confused (Mendel, Mendeleev, Mengele--and I can't tell you how embarrassing it is when you publicly mistake Mendel, the father of genetics, with Mengele, the Nazi's Angel of Death at, say, pub trivia).
It uncovers truly horrifying scenes of U.S. history (the eugenics "experiment" that was heinously upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court?!) and an astounding proliferation of baseless science that is upheld merely by hubris.
As you might be able to tell: this one was all over the board. Opioids, fertilizer technology (which saved thousands of people from starvation) being bastardized into mustard gas and Zyklon-B, eugenics, how Rachel Carson got it wrong about DDT, and so much more related in an understandable (often entertaining) style.
And it has already upped my pub trivia game ;-)
+20 Task (b. 1951)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo: 10.9 (Dewey Decimal 500 @BPL)
Task total: 45
Season total: 1730
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Has anyone used Amazon's Prime Reading? I'm sort of confused about it. There is also Prime First Reads where you can get a book for a month. But it looks like Prime Reading you can borrow a book for as long as you want, but you are limited to 10 titles. Do I have this right?"Prime First Reads: every month you get to choose one of their selected books. It goes into your kindle library and stays there forever. It's them giving you a free book for being a Prime member and you get one every month (sometimes they have a special event where you actually get to choose two selections). Again, they are yours to keep and you never have to "return" them.
Prime Reading: with your Prime account, you get up to borrow up to ten books at any given time (the books you're allowed, as you have already seen, are labeled "free with Prime"). You can keep them as long as you want (I've had a few for well over a year--books I know I want to read and don't want to forget about but just haven't gotten around to yet), but you can only borrow ten. If you find another title you want to add, you have to return one you have checked out. Again, there is no time limit to the borrowing...I think the only time there'd be a forced return would be if you were no longer a Prime member.
I think those are the two programs to which you're referring? Yeah, I love free books :-)
20.2 Wolf HallAs You Like It by William Shakespeare
Oh my goodness, how much do I want to see this one performed!? I recently read Much Ado About Nothing, which has the most spectacularly hilarious dialogue in the canon, but I always forget that this runs a close second. The gender-bendy nature of it should feel right at home in this era and I'm a little shocked it's not performed more often...it's he wants her but she wants him (who's actually a her who wants a him of her own) which is always a jolly good time. Rosalind (Ganymede) has some of the best lines written for a woman by Shakespeare--is it because she wears the guise of a man and Shakespeare gives most of the good stuff to the men? Maybe. But still...it's a pretty damn fun romp.
+20 Task (pub. 1599)
+10 Review
+25 Oldies
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 65
Season total: 1685
20.7 Spec FicGolden Son by Pierce Brown
This is part two in the Red Rising series.
I am glad I waited until the entire series was released before I started reading them--I like that I didn't have to wait a year for each release because I FOR SURE would have forgotten so many of the characters--there are A LOT of them.
Where the first in this series felt like a conglomeration of so many other books/mythologies, book two has established this series as its very own thing. And it's good.
This series belongs on the bookshelf right next to Katniss and Ender and Harry...if you enjoyed all of those stories and mythologies, I'd say give this one a try.
+20 Task (shelved as Speculative Fiction by 42 readers)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.8: Pb=Lead)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1620
20.7 Spec FicRed Rising by Pierce Brown
This is The Hunger Games meets Ender's Game with a little Percy Jackson and a bit of Divergent thrown in for good measure...
Darrow is a Red--the people who spend their lives making Mars livable for future generations, the lowest caste in this color-coded world...only they don't realize that the surface of Mars is already livable, complete with animals and plants and stars and sky, and they are just the grunts who are churning out materials to make that life possible for the Golds.
Darrow becomes the chosen one to break the chains of the oppressed and overthrow the tyranny that has been crushing the lives and hopes of all of his family and friends.
Even though it sometimes feels derivative (view spoiler), it was an interesting enough world and I always love a good political overthrow story (whether it be fic or non). It was a 3.5 for me, rounded up to 4.
+20 Task (shelved as spec fic by 71 readers)
+10 Review
+5 Combo, 20.8 Pb=Lead
Task total: 35
Season total: 1585
20.5 Non-LinearAfter the Flood by Kassandra Montag
This was the group read of the month for my local library. I'd never heard of it before it was chosen and it was kind of a fluke that I actually read it, but once I started I couldn't put it down.
I don't know why I love post-apocalyptic novels so much. I think it's a form of theoretical preparation, perhaps? After having read We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast recently, I'm even more convinced that something terrible is altogether possible/probable in my lifetime (I sound kinda crazy? like a prepper? I don't know...maybe I am. I think it mostly manifests solely in my head and my book reviews--and my food storage :-P don't judge).
This one is set in a world where everything--except the tops of mountains which have now essentially become island chains--is under water. There are a few settlements and trading posts, lots of people on ships, and terrifying bands of pirates.
Myra was pregnant with her second child, living in Nebraska with her mother, grandmother, husband and daughter when the floods hit. Her husband kidnaps her daughter and disappears. The floods swallow up her mother. Her grandfather finishes building a ship for them just in time...Myra gives birth to Pearl and they have to move onto the boat as the water levels keep rising. As long as she has her grandfather, she thinks, she and Pearl will be okay. Until Grandpa dies. All of this comes out in the first few pages, so these aren't really spoilers...but I also don't want to end up giving anything else away so I'll just say that there are a few crucial shipwrecks, fear, terror, hope, and a sweet/sassy six-year-old who loves snakes. While there were a few times where I felt the author was not being true to a character or something rang false, the story was so intense it was easy enough to overlook. It's all plot, but sometimes that's just what a girl is looking for.
+20 Task (narrative switches between before and after the flood)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8; 20.9)
Task total: 40
Season total: 1550
20.4 BoomerFlight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales by Stephen King
This is a collection of short stories about one of my favorite things--and one of Stephen King's least favorite: airplane travel.
It's nice to hear King's "voice" in the book's introduction (where he goes into deeper detail about his fear of flying) and in the introduction to each story. King's story contribution, "The Turbulence Expert," was enjoyable but was not my favorite in the collection. That would be a shared honor for Joe Hill ("You Are Released") and James Dickey (his terrifying poem, "Falling")--though I think it's because they scared me the most, especially Hill's as it's the one most couched in reality. The stories run the gamut from the birth of the flying age (the Arthur Conan Doyle story had a very Jules-Verne-in-the-sky feel) to a sci-fi future. We have military flights, a murder mystery in the air, and the classic Nightmare at 20,000 feet which was made into a Twilight Zone episode (and later included in the Twilight Zone movie).
It was an interesting mix of stories, more hits than misses. (And that Hill story is gonna stick with me for a while--it gave me goosebumps and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that will not soon be forgotten.)
+20 Task (Stephen King, first listed author, b. 1947)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
Task total: 40
Season total: 1510
(Thanks for the congrats, Elizabeth <3 You always make my day!)
15.10 PnM2, C5 (unreliable narrator)The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
+30 Task
Task total: 30
+100 PnM2 Completion
+200 MegaFinish
Season total: 1470
10.8 Double "O"The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson (1000 Lexile)
Several of the books I've read this season have gotten me thinking: how easily we ascribe labels to people, assuming their character and motivations (often assuming the worst) and how very wrong we often are. In this case, we are shown the Nazis in all of their horror--the wanton and purposeless killing, the cruelty of their crimes, their abject lack of humanity--yet the narrator is saved by a Nazi: Oskar Schindler.
The story of Leon's life is a difficult one to hear: the privations and humiliations that they experienced at the beginning of the war, the struggle for survival during the war, the loss of family members, the persecution they experienced from the Poles as they returned to their home. Yet in the epilogue, he expresses his gratitude and love for Schindler, a Nazi, and states of him: "One person can stand up to evil and make a difference." Leon and his family were nearly killed on many different occasions and Schindler stepped in just in time to rescue them...to the point that it would seem unbelievable if it were fiction.
While I was overwhelmed (as I always am) by the firsthand account of a survivor and they lengths they had to go to in order to live, I found myself struck most by the story of Schindler as it was intertwined with the author's. How easy it is for the "Haves" to ignore and disregard the "Have Nots"...yet this rich and influential German spent his entire fortune and put himself and his family at great risk to save the lives of 1,200 strangers...
I don't quite know what to say other than: what an amazing story.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 30
+100 RwS Finish
Season total: 1140
20.1 Inaugural Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
This was a re-read for me.
What a beautiful book about the immigrant experience...about first love...about possible beginnings and possible endings...about living and loving and letting go.
I read 3/4 of this on my phone (Kindle app, while my husband was sleeping and I couldn't so I turned to this book on my phone) and 1/4 in an actual paper and paste book...I don't quite know how to explain it, but I definitely had a different experience in the different media. I felt far more connected to the paper-and-ink experience...when reading on the phone, I found my mind wandering and having to read pages over and over to understand what was going on. It made me a little sad, because I remember the first time reading this being an absolutely transformative experience.
I still love the writer's prose. I loved the direction of the story and the characters and the strange offshoots as if you were walking down the wrong hallway in a building with which you were unfamiliar. I wasn't as essentially shifted upon completion as I felt the first time. I still think it was a 5-star read--but I was more struck not so much by the story itself but more by the realization that reading on a Kindle (especially when it's the app on my phone) is not as fulfilling an experience as the written word on a page of pulp.
+20 Task (2017 nominee)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.5; 20.7--shelved as "speculative fiction" by 44 readers)
Task total: 40
Season total: 1005
15.9 PnM2, B1 (Original publication date 2001 or later)We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
+30 Task (pub. 2019)
Task total: 30
Season total: 965
10.5 BannedDeath of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Okay. I get why this is a classic on an intellectual level, but it just left me cold. Willie Loman is self-involved, self-important, self-aggrandizing man who really has nothing to show for himself. In the final scene his self-delusion comes to fruition in the most horrible of ways.
My takeaway? This felt like a criticism of capitalism and the American Dream, which I can't deny is a flawed construct. We go to work every day for The Man until we're deemed too old/useless/superfluous then we're cast aside, buried in bills, beholden to the machine with no way to remain afloat. It's bleak.
Perhaps I wouldn't dislike it as much if I had seen it performed, but in reading it I just feel hollow and a little dirty. Maybe I missed the point altogether. That being said: now that I know what is in this play, I will never seek it out, will never watch it, am hesitant to read another Arthur Miller play.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.7: A,U,I,E; 20.5; 20.8: Am=Americium)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Oldies (pub. 1949)
Task total: 50
Season total: 935
15.8 PnM2, E6 (Title Contains Q, X, or Z)The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 885
