Anika’s
Comments
(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,841-1,860 of 2,800
Karen Michele wrote: "I’m still thinking about this one. I read it and it was a good book, but I don’t remember if there was anything in the book itself that spoke to climate change. It is similar, though, to the book I..."Yes...I just started it and quite enjoy it so far so don’t think I’ll abandon it if it doesn’t work.
Would Zeitoun work for this one? It's about Hurricane Katrina. I know it's a natural disaster, but climate science would indicate that the worsening severity and increased occurrence of hurricanes are related to climate change...
20.6 The Stone CarversWe Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
When we first meet Rosemary Cooke, she is in college. She seems normal, if somewhat precocious. Slowly, she reveals the story of her family....her clinically depressed mother, her alcoholic father, her radical (animal rights activist) brother, her disappeared sister. (view spoiler)
I liked the way the story unfolded, but didn't particularly like any of the characters. The way the author writes about the treatment of animals just reinforced this overwhelming thought (which has developed from so many of the books I've been reading lately related to overpopulation, climate destruction, etc.) that humans are kinda of terrible. Ugh. I need to find something light and uplifting already to reestablish my belief in humanity!
+20 Task (Man Booker nominee 2014)
+10 Review
+15 Prizeworthy
+20 Combo (10.4; 10.5--https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... 10.9 "completely"=10 letters; 20.10 wE Are all cOmpletely besIde oUrselves)
Task total: 65
Season total: 860
20.5 Singled OutIce by Annelie Wendeberg
The final installment of this trilogy did not disappoint! It was white-knuckle tense, surprisingly tender, shockingly graphic (including an extremely disturbing rape scene, so beware if you choose to read), and utterly heartbreaking (I ugly cried (view spoiler). Micka has the key to bring down the BSA (the fundamentalist faction who is attempting to take out the rest of the human race), now she just has to traverse the tundra and cross an ocean to reach the control tower at the top of the world. I’m so glad I happened upon this author and don’t think I ever would have found her if not for the Cli Fi task (so, thank you, Karen Michele!). Bonus! I just went to the book page to rate it and noticed that a fourth book is in the works!
+20 Task (main character is single, twice widowed—never married during the book, she is a soldier on a quest so has no household but is absolutely independent)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.8)
Task total: 40
Season total: 795
15.7 AbBY, Chronological 1965-1969Landing by Emma Donoghue (1969)
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 755
15.6 AbBY, Chronological 1960-1964Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman (1960)
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 725
10.7 Crazy Rich Asians...or Not!The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
I had previously read Exit West and loved it so was looking forward to hearing this author’s unique voice again. Changez, our narrator, was at the top of his class in Lahore, eventually earning himself a spot at Princeton and then at a prestigious valuation firm in New York, where he is a quickly rising star. While at Princeton, he meets the beautiful Erica, with whom he becomes entangled (though not in ways he was hoping or expecting). Amidst his personal turmoil and angst caused by the nebulous nature of his “relationship” with Erica, two planes hit the World Trade Center and his world turns upside down.
This book was fascinating, covering everything from the immigrant experience and what it means to be a citizen of the world to very personal and individual experiences of desire and loss.
I love that he said things that some people might find hard to hear, that he didn’t shy away from or make excuses for presenting ideas that some might find hard to swallow. I love that the book ends as somewhat of a cliffhanger, letting the reader decide for themselves how they think it “really” ends. This was one short, powerful book and am still reeling from it. Highly recommend!
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Prizeworthy
+20 Combo (10.5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... ; 10.9 “reluctant”=9; 20.5–Erica is single; 20.6)
Task total: 50
Season total: 695
15.5 AbBY, Chronological 1955-1959Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion (1956)
+30 Task
Task total: 30
Season total: 645
I just finished a book (The Reluctant Fundamentalist) and the MPE is the Kindle edition, having +200 pages. When I choose “all editions” the first one to pop up (a hardcover edition) has fewer than 200. Do I go with the first listed print edition or the MPE ebook in this case?
15.4 AbBY, Chronological 1950-1954Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom (1953)
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 615
10.3 Real PlaceThe Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
What a truly lovely book (especially after all of the end-of-the-world, dark stuff I've been reading lately). Addie Baum is an 85-year-old recounting her life to her 22-year-old granddaughter. We hear about her growing up in a tenement in Boston and having to leave school in order to work to earn money for the family. We hear about the friends she made in her library club and enjoy their ups and downs and the shape their friendships take over the course of their lifetime. It's filled with humor and heartbreak, embarrassment and triumph which makes it feel more like a memoir than a novel. I love that she told the story not only as the one who lived it, but as an older, wiser, kinder self who could admit to her younger self's naivete and mistakes and forgive her for them (I know I find myself thinking of my younger self's missteps and still berating myself for them...hopefully by the time I'm 85, I will have learned this woman's grace and be able to forgive myself for not being perfect). I listened to this one and Linda Lavin was the perfect reader for this! It definitely added something to the experience, since the book is told as oral history, to hear it spoken aloud.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total: 595
10.8 Cli FiFog by Annelie Wendeberg
This is the second in the series set in a world transformed by environmental disaster which has caused a plague and the loss of billions of lives. The remaining humans have branched off into two different factions and it appears to be a leave-no-survivors situation.
I usually find the second book in a series to be a bridge--something I have to cross to get from the interesting premise submitted in the premier book of the series to the resolution of the final book. Second books in trilogies always seem to...sag.
This one didn't--it was taut throughout. The action is intense and right when you think you're going to be let off the hook for a minute, a bomb goes off (Micka has completed her apprenticeship and is now a full-fledged sniper, so she's right in the heart of the action). I need to finish this series already! The emotional anxiety it is eliciting is too much to sustain :-/
That being said: isn't that the sign of a good book? One that transports you and doesn't easily let you out of its grip? Yes, this one relies heavily on plot, but the characters are multi-dimensional and well-wrought, the premise is compelling, the science of the post-apocalyptic world is logical, and I am always a sucker for a strong female protagonist. Still loving this series, hope it ends well (fingers crossed!).
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.5--she is a single-never married soldier with no home only a base camp and a sniping partner)
Task total: 30
Season total: 575
20.3 Birds Without WingsInferno by Dan Brown
UUUUUUGGH. I wanted to like this...I thought I'd let enough time elapse between my exposure to Dan Brown that I wouldn't be irked by the formulaic nature of his books. Nope. Nope nope nope. I saw one review for this that likened it to a Mad Libs, and I couldn't stop laughing at the truth of it.
Pros of this book:
--I love the puzzles and scavenger hunt aspect.
--I love the descriptions of art and culture (although the didactic nature in which Robert Langdon conveys it can get grating).
--I love the vivid descriptions of the cities they visit: Florence, Venice, Istanbul...it makes me desperate for a vacation.
--I liked that, in the end, there wasn't a huge differentiation between the "good guys" and the "bad guys."
--I like that the good guys didn't "win", they way you expect in this type of book.
Cons:
--I hate that there always HAS to be a female side-kick (who secretly finds Robert sooo handsome)--in this one, Sienna is supposedly an off-the-charts genius--yet Robert still has to explain basic things to her and works things out more quickly...hmph.
--I hate that this art history/symbology professor randomly has expertise in areas that are inexplicable.
--I hate that I fall for these books, even though I know they're going to follow roughly the same formula every time.
This one involves the issue of overpopulation and the risk it poses to humanity and the earth--an issue I've encountered a lot lately (I'm currently reading two other books that revolve around this same issue on some level). I, surprisingly, liked how this one dealt with it...it was thoughtful, realistic, and interesting. Who knew Dan Brown had that in him?
+20 Task (shelved "Turkey" 28 times)
+10 Review
+5 Prizeworthy
+15 Combo (10.2; 10.5--https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... 20.5--Sienna Brooks and Elizabeth Sinskey are both single heads of their own household)
Task total: 50
Season total: 545
20.8 AutumnEmma by Jane Austen
I love Jane Austen's writing, the sharp criticism couched in genteel language. I think on this reading I finally understood that Jane Austen doesn't particularly like Emma, either (the "either" implying my own distaste for this character).
I love games, and fancy myself pretty good at them. I have friends who love games and fancy themselves pretty good at them when, in fact, they're quite awful. They brag about their prowess over the card table as they play a truly terrible game and I just have to hold my tongue and roll my eyes as their back is turned. Emma would fit in that latter category. She thinks she is a wonderful matchmaker (her game of choice), that her skills are unparalleled...in fact, everything she touches turns to ruin. THE HUBRIS of this inexperienced young lady is astounding. And I will never understand her attachment to and desire to marry off Harriet (insert eye roll). My favorite part in the whole book is when Emma says a rather unkind thing to Miss Bates and gets dressed down for it by Mr Knightley. I kinda hate that she gets a happy ending, but such is Austen.
+20 Task (pub. 1815, author born and lived in England)
+10 Review
+15 Oldies
+10 Combo (10.4--The Next Best Book Club shelf; 10.5 Emma)
Task total: 55
Season total: 495
(I wasn't sure if it would work for 20.5, since she ends up marrying at the end and she isn't head of her household--that would be her father--despite the fact that she operates as if she is the head ;-) I decided to err in the negative on that task.)
From Post 95Anika wrote: "15.2 AbBY Chronological 1940-1944
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (b. 1943)
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 220"
I show an addition error here. I think you may have missed post 82 in your calculations. :)
Oh, Kate! I made a right mess of everything! I am so sorry...I've checked, double checked, and triple checked my calculations this time and have updated my addition on all of my posts so it should be correct now.
20.9 ArkansasPaper Towns by John Green (850 Lexile)
Margo Roth Spiegelman is the queen of her high school: she's popular, has a hot boyfriend, has an air of mystery that attracts everyone and the stories about her daring are legend.
Q is her neighbor--and has been in love with Margo since they were eleven. He has two best friends, Ben and Radar. He is a good student, is well adjusted, but mostly flies under the radar.
Until, a month before graduation, Margo shows up outside his window at midnight and demands he accompany her on an evening of mischief-making. (view spoiler)Part detective story, part coming-of-age drama with plenty of laughs thrown in, once again John Green does not disappoint.
After note: The whole time, I was "casting" the movie of this in my head (oddly, featuring half of the cast of Netflix's "13 Reasons Why")...just saw that there actually is a movie of this one...I think I need to see it now!
+20 Task (#235 on the list)
+10 Review
+15 Prizeworthy (Edgar Award for Best Y.A.; Bronzener Lufti winner; Literaturpreis der Jury der jungen Leser winner; Corine Internationaler Buchpreis winner)
+5 Combo (10.5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...)
Task total: 50
Season total: 440
20.7 A Month in the CountryQueenpin by Megan Abbott
OMG! I really loved this one. You wouldn't think it--it took me nearly two weeks to finish, but that's only because I've been busy so have been listening to books while doing other work or reading on my kindle before bed (this is an actual honest-to-god paperback book--can't read that with a nightlight or I keep my husband up too late!).
ANYWAY--*this*! THIS is what "noir" is and I loved it! Fast-paced, racy, slang-slinging mobsters, dolled-up molls, crosses and double-crosses and surprising violence...I love the atmosphere and Abbott's writing and I love that she does noir with a female protagonist and that the women in the book are equally (if not more so) badass, cold as marble, hard as steel. If you're looking for a romp on a seedy darkside, this is the ticket, sweetheart!
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Prizeworthy
+10 Combo (10.6; 20.5--both main characters are single women, heads of their own households)
Task total: 50
Season total: 390
Ed wrote: "Anika wrote: "20.1 War's EndVile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
This is the first book I've read by Waugh, and while it was enjoyable I don't think I loved it enough to seek..."
I'll have to put that one on my TBR list...your review makes it sound much more palatable than this one ;-)
20.1 War's EndVile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
This is the first book I've read by Waugh, and while it was enjoyable I don't think I loved it enough to seek out any of his other books. This one revolves around the various Bright Young Things (I couldn't help but imagining them as a more flippant version of today's hipster crowd) of London's 1920s--wealthy, unencumbered by any sense of responsibility (or civility), they flitted from one party to another, money flowing through their hands like so much gin and tonic...It started out a laughable farce, turned into an on-again-off-again "love" story, and ended in such serious circumstances (while still maintaining the romp) that it exposes how truly absurd, laughable, and despicable these Bright Young Things were. It was an artful turnabout there at the end, but I was utterly relieved it was finally over! You know how sometimes you really wish that the characters in a book were alive so you could be friends? Not a single person in this book would fit that bill.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.5--https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., 20.8)
+10 Oldies (pub. 1930)
Task total: 50
Season total: 340
15.3 AbBY, Chronological 1945-1949Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King (1947)
+20 Task
Task total: 20
Season total: 290
