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

Anika’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.7 PnM2, E4 (Non-Generic Subtitle)

Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You by Lin-Manuel Miranda

+20 Task

Task total: 20
Season total: 865

15.6 PnM2, A3 (Set in Europe)

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Task total: 20
Season total: 845

15.5 PnM2, D5 (Historical Fiction, Romance, Adventure)

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

Task total: 20
Season total: 825

15.4 PnM2, F4

A Better Man by Louise Penny

+15 Task (Author name L-O)

Task total: 15
Season total: 805

20.3 Author

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron

The titular "Jane" is Jane Austen and the "unpleasantness" is a double murder that gets pinned on her friend, Isobel, and her friend's amour. Jane becomes a sleuth in an attempt to exonerate Isobel and in the process encounters ghosts and shady characters and several people who eventually find their way into her books.
The conceit of this book is that someone (modern day) found a treasure trove of Jane's diaries and are now publishing the exploits found therein, so it is written in that mix of neoclassicism and romanticism that is so distinctly hers...well, attempted to write this way, at least. It felt overdone at times and entirely abandoned at others, which was distracting.
While I found this to be an interesting premise, I think this is the only one of the series (thirteen of these books?!) that I will be reading.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.7: E, A, I, O; 20.4: b. 1963; 20.8: Sb=Antimony)

Task total: 45
Season total: 790

And congrats, Beth! Nice RwS finish!!

10.1 Sub-Sandwich

The Power by Naomi Alderman

This book is filled with war and politics and violence and inequality between the sexes and religion used to support an imbalanced status quo--which sounds pretty much like the world at large today--but instead of the patriarchy being at the heart of it, it's the matriarchy. Women being the power behind the violence, being the movers and shakers in politics (and the ones with their finger on the metaphoric button), having the dominance and the taste for cruelty. It was hard to read at times, but even harder to put down.
I read somewhere that this was "our era's The Handmaid's Tale" and that is not too far off the mark.
In the end, what I took away from it was: humanity (both male and female)+unmitigated power=disaster.
I loved it (maybe that's because I'm a huge sucker for spec fic, but the writing was fantastic and the premise, brilliant).

+10 Task
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.3, 10.7--A,O,I,E--20.5, 20.7--shelved as "speculative fiction" by 216 readers, 20.8--Na=Sodium)

Task total: 45
Season total: 745

15.3 PnM2, D2

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

+15 Task ("Mystery" and "Thriller" are both on homepage genre)

Task total: 15
Season total: 700

20.2 Wolf Hall

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Every time I read Shakespeare, I get something new from the text.
While I normally swoon/die laughing at the repartee between Beatrice and Benedick, this time the thing that stuck out for me (and bothered me) most was the story of Claudio and Hero. Not once but twice does Claudio spurn Hero (first when he thinks the Prince truly wants her and again when he sees "her" getting it on with someone else), and both times the bastard Don John is involved...come on! No one trusts the bastard for a reason!
Hero! Why in the world would you take this man as your husband after he has already proven false--taking the word of a known knave over your own sweet, virtuous self--and humiliated you in front of your entire town?! Yeah, she wouldn't--except for the fact that she was written into being by a man (and a man of the 16th century, no less). Rant over. Still love this one, easily top three of my favorites of the bard.

+20 Task (pub. 1598)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.1)
+25 Oldies

Task total: 70
Season total: 685

10.2 Book Lover's Day

The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

It all starts with a book of poetry, found on the road by Loveday Cardew. Loveday works at the Lost for Words Bookshop, is a pierced, tattooed, and dyed misfit, and has had one rough go of life. She posts a "lost and found" notice for the book in the window of the shop. Enter Nathan: a Doc Marten's-wearing poet and magician whose book fell from the pocket of his black leather jacket and was rescued by Loveday. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know where this is going...but the road to love is ever a rocky one, and there are a few boulders on this couple's path.

I loved the characters in this novel--my only regret is that we didn't get a little bit more time with Archie, the eccentric and affable owner of the bookshop. Loveday's backstory slowly unfolds with every other chapter taking place during her childhood. Nathan is a wonder of a man, but still has imperfections which make him believable. While there is definitely a romance involved, there are enough other things going on that it doesn't feel like merely a "romance novel"--definitely contemporary fiction.
After reading such a heavy and harrowing book just before this, The Lost for Words Bookshop was such a joy...smart writing, simple story, couched in the love of books, left a smile on my face.

+10 Task (tagged "books about books" by 150 users)
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.7--E, A, I, U; 10.8; 20.3; 20.5; 20.8: Sb=Antimony)

Task total: 45
Season total: 615

10.4 Replay (of 20.1 Iris Murdoch, read a book published during Iris Murdoch's lifetime, 1919-1999)

Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich

"I can't tell everything in one evening. My heart can't stand it."
"When I talk about it, I bite my hands till they bleed, so as not to cry..."
"I lose my voice when I tell about this...My voice dies..."
"I don't want to remember. But I need to tell people about my misfortune. It's hard to weep alone."

As a reader, my heart was bleeding with the turn of every page.

Alexievich is a Nobel Prize winning journalist whose books are a compilation of interview--in this book, we are hearing the accounts of men and women who were children in WWII.
These interviews are shorter than many of those in her other books and read like dreams or fairy tales--but the horrible kind of fairy tales where children are fattened up to have their blood drained from them (because the Germans thought that transfusions of blood from children under the age of five helped the wounded soldier recover more quickly), and the only food another child could find were baked apples--the apples on the trees had baked from the heat of the burning village...and burning villagers...

While it is hard to read, these words stand as witness not only to the horrors that humans visit upon each other but also to the heroism that humans are capable of.
Again (and even more so) in this installation of her series, there is liberal use of ellipses--and so much is contained in those visual pauses.

"So I've told you...Is that all? All that's left of such horror? A few dozen words..."
5 stars. Easily.

+10 Task (first pub. 1985)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo--20.4, born 1948

Task total: 35
Season total: 570

i just finished The Lost for Words Bookshop and one of the main characters is a poet—the performance of poetry by him and later by the female lead play a big part in the story, even though “writer” would not be considered their profession. would this work for this task?

10.3 Andre Gide

The Trap by Melanie Raabe

I loved the premise: A famous (and famously reclusive) author whose sister was murdered years ago writes a book about said murder (thinly veiled, of course) to flush out the murderer and get a confession.
What I did not love: Chapters from this fictional book are interspersed with the action and the writing is pretty Stephenie Meyer-level bad, yet she’s supposed to be this great prize-winning literary star. Hmph. The pacing was frustrating—so rushed at the beginning that it was almost disorienting.
What I liked: You never know what is true...not what the narrator is saying or thinking, what is *actually* transpiring, constantly questioning assumptions you’d already considered truths. It was well done.
Though the writing wasn’t amazing it got the job done and the story had me engaged from beginning to end. 3.25 stars.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo 20.3

Task total: 25
Season total: 535

20.8 Periodic Table

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Shaun Bythell is the owner of the second-largest used bookstore in Scotland and this is a year in his (work)life. Not only are you treated to the stories of strange/obnoxious customers (I was flabbergasted at how many people would ask for a discount or try to haggle at checkout—it’s a shop, for crying out loud, not a bazaar or flea market) and the quirky employees/regulars, you get an insider’s view of running a bookstore in the age of Amazon. Bythell, who of necessity sells books through Amazon, makes no bones about his feelings for that company and their Kindle: a must-see feature of the shop is a trophy-mounted Kindle “Shot by Shaun Blythell, 22nd August 2014”.
It killed me when he would mention when people would be browsing and say within his hearing, “You could find it cheaper on Amazon”...and was mortified at my own behavior, because I’ve been guilty of that same thought process myself. I know that’s not entirely what this book was about, but the thing that has stuck with me most after having finished it was being more aware of my purchasing habits and making a renewed effort to buy local.
Sometimes the book felt repetitive, but I suppose that’s a true reflection of a business that doesn’t vary much from day to day. 3.5 stars.

+20 Task (Sb=Antimony)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.7—A, E, U, Y, 10.8)

Task total: 55
Season total: 510

10.10 Group Reads

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I didn’t know a thing about this book before picking it up...that is one of my favorite things to do and I don’t know why I don’t do it more often! I loved going into this one blind, never having read a synopsis or book flap, just letting it all unfold as the author intended.
And what a story! I was loathe to put the book down, but life being what it is had other plans—otherwise, I’d have devoured it in one sitting. I liked the format of the book (each chapter alternating between a WWI and post-WWII storyline), mostly liked the characters, quite enjoyed the writing, SUPER loved the fact that some of the characters I loved most were *real people* whose story (while embellished and altered some for the sake of the storytelling) would have remain largely unheard of it were not for this book. When I got to the end and read the author’s note about the historical figures, my jaw physically dropped open in shock at the truths she had woven into this story. Katy, thanks for a great recommendation!

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (MPE 532 pages)
+10 Combo: 10.7 (A, E, I, U), 20.5

Task total: 35
Season total: 455

20.10 Difficult

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

This is my first time reading Catch-22 and I don’t know if I ever would have if it hadn’t been for the Hulu series that my husband wanted to watch...
I never realized that it was a humorous book—I guess I always assume that WWII books are going to be bleak/heavy/sad/tense This one was definitely funny—which made the horror of the war even more pronounced.
I listened to this one and the reader was fantastic. It was a little confusing at times since the timeline is all over the place (thought I’d accidentally replayed a file I’d already heard a time or two), but those flashbacks were used to devastating effect: the absurdity of the war machine, the greed fueled by the Syndicate, the ever-growing mission quota to glorify the man setting the quotas—this backdrop of futile tragicomedy repeatedly juxtaposed with a wounded Snowden’s mantra, “I’m cold”....it’s giving me goosebumps just thinking about it, of Yossarian finding out why he’s so cold.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1961)
+20 Combo (10.1, 10.5, 10.6, 20.5)

Task total: 55
Season total: 420

20.6 Monster Redux

Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery by Paul Collins

Welcome to "Law and Order: 1800".
We begin with the scene of the crime: the Manhattan Well. The author explains the proposed new water system, proposed by Aaron Burr, to improve the water supply and reduce the occurrence of yellow fever which plagued the city--but also to bolster his failing finances. Then we move on to the victim: a young Quaker woman, Elma Sands, who had recently moved to Manhattan and was living in a boarding house where she met Levi Weeks. They were of similar age and had been seen going about together and rumors started floating that they were engaged. Late Christmas Eve, 1799, Elma stole from her room and left the boarding house. The landlady, eavesdropping through the wall, swears she heard another set of feet following her out though no one saw anything. The next day, Elma hasn't returned. The neighbor who lent her a muff is put out, because she needs it yet Elma still has it. Speculation abounds: was she with child and seeking an illegal abortion? had she run away in despair? had she gone off on her own and been injured and can't make it back? is she staying with friends? No one knows.
Flash forward one week. New Year's Eve party. The neighbor spots her muff on someone else and asks where she got it. Lady says that her son found it and gave it to her for Christmas. Everyone runs to said son to ask where it was: in the Manhattan Well.
Eventually, Elma's body is recovered from the well and the whodunit portion of the story commences.
Levi is arrested (despite any evidence other than the fact that the landlady heard footsteps) and will hang unless he is found innocent by a jury of his "peers" (only moneyed men were allowed to serve on juries, and Levi was a poor carpenter).
Enter Hamilton and Burr, political rivals and longtime frenemies, both in debt to Weeks's family so obligated to defend him (pro bono). At the time, constables were not in the habit of looking for evidence and coroners were inept (their conclusion after seeing the body was basically, "Yep. She's dead"). The burden of deciphering and breaking the case were left to the lawyers. Burr and Hamilton were up to the task!

Okay. This is already ridiculously long. I just have to convey how interesting and shocking it was: a) that this case was lost to history, especially considering the current obsession with Hamilton; b) the real murderer was sooooo obvious and it was frustrating that he never got pinned for it (of course, hindsight is 20/20, even 200+ years later); c) how much the justice system has changed! The trial itself lasted TWO DAYS...granted, it went until after midnight on the first day and wrapped up at 2:30 a.m. the following day, the deliberations lasted between two and ten minutes, depending on who your source is.
The last eighth of the book is a "where are they now" of sorts, which includes the infamous Duel.
Great mix of true crime and history.

+20 Task ("Devil")
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo, 10.7: A, U, O, I

Task total: 45
Season total: 365

20.4 Boomer

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

I loved this book! Maybe it's because I've been submerged in a sea of non-fiction, but this one scratched me right where I didn't realize I was itching.
From the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes another unusual tale accompanied by a great soundtrack (my reading was slowed a little since every time a song was mentioned, I cued it up and listened to it as I kept reading). I felt like this one was a mix of High Fidelity, a little John Hughes sensibility (really, just pick any of his movies...), and a little classical flash mob thrown in for good measure (this one, to be exact). It's a love story to a time and place, a love story to music, and a sweet love story to boot.
Frank owns a record shop. He loves the music, knows the stories behind each composer and song, and can prescribe them to anyone who comes into his shop to heal what ails them.
Until Ilsa Brauchmann falls into his life--literally. She passes out in front of his shop and when she comes to, they are both thunderstruck. But, of course, it's not that easy. She's engaged, he's terrified of love--but he loves music and she wants to learn to love music, so he begins giving her weekly music lessons.

I don't want to give anything away...but if you like books that talk (A LOT) about music--of all genre: classical, jazz, rock, punk, it's all in here!--this would be an excellent read for you. If you like odd communities of disparate but such lovely people, that's in here too. It's definitely a romance (which is not usually my genre of choice), but this one was just lovely. I'd give it 4.5, rounded up to a 5.

+20 Task (b. 1962)
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 10.7: A, E, O, Y; 20.5: every other chapter was a flashback to his childhood with his mum, who taught him everything he knew about music

Task total: 40
Season total: 320

20.9 Shipwrecked!

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

The sinking of the Essex was (apparently, as I have never read it) the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick, or, the Whale. And while the story of this angry (in this case, sperm) whale was fascinating--that was just the tip of the iceberg!
Drug addicted Quaker housewives (granted, that was just one little tiny throwaway detail, but, COME ON! Opium addicted Quaker housewives on Nantucket in the 1820s!? Scandalous!), a string of terrible decisions made by the Captain (well...really made by the first mate to which the Captain capitulated. DUMMY! As Philbrick points out: "In disaster decisions must be made quickly and firmly"...Captain Pollard--who had all of the best and safest ideas, as history would prove--gave in to the voice of the crowd, ultimately culminating in the deaths of much of the crew), and a not-so-brief foray into cannibalism.
Which I find somewhat ironic, as the whole reason that they chose to bypass several islands closer to the site of the wreck was that they wanted to avoid the cannibals on those islands (despite the fact that, if they had read ANYTHING published by other sea voyagers of the time they would have known that the tales of cannibalism were untrue. To quote Philbrick: "Only a Nantucketer in November 1820 possessed the necessary combination of arrogance, ignorance, and xenophobia to shun a beckoning, albeit unknown, island and choose instead an open sea voyage of several thousand miles." Nantucket was the world capital of whaling at that time, so clearly they knew everything. The hubris.
Philbrick's telling of the tale draws you along with the action, but weaves in science, psychology, and history to give it more gravity and introspection than mere storytelling.

+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+15 Combo (20.4--b. 1956, 20.5, 20.8--NP=Neptunium)

Task total: 55
Season total: 280

Oh, Coralie...I am so heartsick to hear of your many losses in such a short amount of time. I never know what to say at times like these. I remember when my dad died, I tried to pay attention to the things that people would say so I could use them when I needed them...thing is, my brain was so muddled and my heart so heavy that everyone's words went in one ear and out the other. But I do remember that just having someone recognize my loss made it a little lighter to bear...
I know we only have tenuous connections here on this site, being so far removed in time and distance, yet still my heart is heavy for you and I am truly so sorry for your loss. I hope you have plenty of loving friends and family closer to home to soften this awful blow. XO.

I'm reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (for "Shipwrecked!") and am wondering if I can claim combo points for Non-Linear:
as with much historical non-fiction that I've read, this one follows the events in chronological order, but the narrative itself jumps around to elucidate the topic using different events both from the past (including but not limited to: the experience of other shipwreck survivors from up to 50 years earlier, the original colonization of islands in the Pacific which happened hundreds of years earlier, the mutiny on the Bounty and their establishment of a community on Pitcairn) to the future (including a study of the effects of starvation on the human body conducted in the 1940s). There are more examples of the jumping around in time, but don't know if it would be enough to count as non-linear...