Anika’s
Comments
(group member since Dec 25, 2011)
Anika’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
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Hi! Before I get to posting my books for this month, could I please switch The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici (which I currently have as filling the 20.6 task) to 10.7? I also need to move Allegiant by Veronica Roth from 10.3 to 20.9.
Since I've moving a 10 point task to a 20 point and also changing a 20 point to a 10 point, it won't effect my grand total (though my grand total is currently showing 305 on the official reader board, but my records show I'm at 310--I think the +5 noted in post148 may not have been factored in my official total).
10.2 RavioliLavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
I only vaguely remember having read The Aeneid back in my college days and certainly don't remember the story of Lavinia being in it. Apparently, despite the fact that she was Aeneas's third and final wife and with whom he establishes an empire, she doesn't speak a word and is only minimally mentioned.
This book gives Lavinia her voice.
I loved the rich writing, the clear and strong characters, but mostly the story construct. Time is never quite linear, bouncing back and forth between past, present, and future (I'd noticed that it was tagged as "Historical Fiction/Sci Fi/Social Science" in my library's audio book and was a little confused how "Sci Fi" fit in there--I think it was referring to the twisted timeline). She meets the "wraith" of Virgil, a man on his deathbed who, in his own era, is struggling to finish writing his last and finest historical epic. He apologizes to her that he has misrepresented her, that he'd imagined her so much differently. He tells her the history that he has penned--her future that she is yet to live.
I love that this strong, powerful, devoted woman has finally been given the voice she was denied by the first writer of her story.
+10 Task (set in ancient Italy)
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.6; 20.4; 20.7--she was daughter, husband, and mother to kings, a queen in her own right)
Task total: 35
Season total: 310
10.3 SeriesAllegiant by Veronica Roth (830 Lexile)
I bought this book the week it came out (back in 2013). I knew I was heading to work and didn't want to haul that massive book with me, so I lent it to my sister--she, her husband, and two of her three daughters read it before I ended up getting it back. By then, I was several books deep into my TBR and this book just kept getting shoved to the back of the pile.
Flash forward five years and I've finally gotten around to reading it. It was a giant "meh." I loved the first books and was so intrigued by the world Roth had created, I couldn't wait to see how it unfolded. Having waited so long, though, I constantly felt like I was playing catch-up: trying to remember characters and their relationships, trying to piece together the drama that had been lain in Insurgent, trying to feel anything for the characters and their plight. I failed--and that is entirely on me. If I had gone back and read the first two books, I'm sure I would have like this so much better!
I will say that I appreciated that the ending felt more authentic than I was expecting. Dystopian genre aside, if it's YA I'm anticipating a "happily ever after." I was pleased that this was not the case. It would have been disingenuous. 3.5*
+10 Task (Book 3 of the Divergent series)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.4 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... ; 20.9, 526 pages)
+5 Jumbo (526 pages)
Task total: 35
Season total: 275
20.6 Dead SoulsThe Little Book of Feminist Saints by Julia Pierpont
I loved the format of this book: "The idea came from the Catholic saint-of-the-day book, the kind one might read as a source of daily inspiration throughout the calendar year." I wish that there had been a full complement of "matron saints" to fill the entire year; there are only 99 women included (leaving one day for you to fill in with your own personal "matron saint") and I was left hungry for more. On each "feast day" assigned to the women (whether that date be their birthday, the day they did something notable, a holiday date that corresponds to their essence, etc.), you are treated to a brief history or anecdote to get you to the essence of what made them notable. In addition to well-known scientists/athletes/performers/writers/politicians/activists, I met so many inspiring ladies whom I never knew existed! I can't wait to read more about the "Night Witches"--the pilots of the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Force whose rickety crop dusters made of plywood and canvas sounded like broomsticks knocking together, thus the nickname given to them by the Germans: "Nachthexen". They dropped more than 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi invaders from planes that were so old, they couldn't bear the added weight of parachutes, radios, or radar. And Mary Edwards Walker, surgeon during the Civil War and the only woman to this day to have received the Medal of Honor for her service. And the list could go on and on, but I'll just let you read it for yourselves ;-) 5*
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo (10.5--94 ratings, just came out at the beginning of this month!; 20.2)
Task total: 50
Season total: 240
Wondering if Katherine would work...I think it might, based on the Goodreads blurb, but want to make sure before I decided to jump into this one!
20.2 The Blazing WorldHunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
You may know Carrie Brownstein from her role on "Portlandia" or from her years in the band Sleater-Kinney. Or, like me, you may not know her at all (I've only seen one episode of "Portlandia" and didn't have any idea who she was and I missed the whole Sleater-Kinney bandwagon--I was living in Europe when they hit it big and by the time I was back in the U.S., my musical tastes had passed the punk/grunge/riot grrrl stage). I have friends who'd read and recommended this one and I've been in the mood for memoir and it was available at my library: the trifecta which creates the perfect storm for My Next Book. Speaking of trifectas--this girl could not describe ANYTHING without giving it three modifiers...most of which were just a list of three synonyms. Irksome. And towards the end of the book, EVERYTHING was "quotidian." :-/ Grrr.
While it was interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at being in an "it" band of the '90s, as a narrative it was unfulfilling. She started with talking about her family life when she was young, but only glancingly. Fine. I get it. You don't want to divulge, keep some things private. I, as a reader, want to read a book that isn't choppy, disjointed, and meandering. I did not get that.
The rest of the book talks about the evolution of the band: their feminist leaning, the creative process of the songs and albums, life on the road, the health problems she suffered while touring.
While her writing style was often overwrought and several topics she began felt underdeveloped and jerky, it was an interesting look inside the head of an extremely creative, passionate young woman. 3*
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo (20.6)
Task total: 45
Season total: 190
10.5 Green StoneFrontier Grit: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women
I love reading the stories of unknown heroes and this was filled with them: 12 stories of remarkable women who challenged and changed their worlds when the odds were against them. There was a gold rush "boomer", the first Mexican-American to publish in English, the artist and writer on whom Wallace Stegner based the character Susan Burling Ward in "Angle of Repose" (and whom he blatantly plagiarized!), the first female state senator (who won in a race against her husband!), a freed slave who moved West in search of her children who were sold away from her, the best stagecoach driver in the West (who wasn't revealed to be a woman until after her death), a fearless suffragette in Oregon, and a woman fighting sex-trafficking in San Francisco's Chinatown. These women were inspiring, indomitable, and inimitable. They were doing remarkable things that women were discouraged from or outright not allowed to do, a couple of them found themselves in jail a time or two, yet they fought against the odds and prevailed.
While the writing in this book was at times simplistic, I enjoyed the inspiring stories enough to overlook it.
+10 Task (752 ratings)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+5 Combo (20.6. Reading it, I definitely thought it'd fit for 20.2 but it doesn't have sufficient shelvings as "feminist")
Task total: 35
Season total: 145
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 122 Anika wrote: "20.1 The DoubleThe Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
This one started out well enough...perfect couple have perfect daughters (identical twins, b..."
Thanks for doing the investigating on my behalf (and for the extra points)! You rock <3
20.1 The DoubleThe Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
This one started out well enough...perfect couple have perfect daughters (identical twins, blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful], perfect dog, perfect life. One of the twins dies, having fallen from a balcony, and everything turns to s*#!. Dad turns to alcohol, eventually losing his job. Mom starts to lose touch with reality. Remaining twin...well, she can’t decide which one she is. This has the feel of a psychological thriller, family drama, and ghost story all wrapped into one. It alternates between the mother and father’s points of view, which makes for interesting pacing of the revelation of pertinent information. I really hated the mother, the father felt like a flat and somewhat unbelievable character, and I don’t even know where to start with the daughter. I gave it 3 stars based on the taut psychological intrigue in the beginning but the ridiculous actions of the mother towards the end of the book killed it for me—if I find myself rolling my eyes and scoffing at a character’s choices out loud in public, that does not bode well...
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)
Task total: 35
Season total: 105
10.1 Square PegWe Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
I've been trying to chip away at the Goodreads nominees and winners of the Best Books of 2017 and this was nominated for "Humor." It definitely had its moments of funny/witty, but there were enough moments of depth (from the mangled errand of scattering her estranged father's ashes to having to put down her "horrible" cat, Helen Keller, with plenty more "adulting" issues in between) to save it from being entirely fluff. That being said, Irby is a blogger and this did feel like a collection of blog entries thrown together, with plenty of overlap of material and snarky buzzword throwing-around to appeal to the blogosphere. I listened to this one and it was read by the author--I didn't love the narration, but understand her choice as it was very much HER story, her baby, and it would be hard to trust someone else with it. I'd give it 3.25 stars.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 30
Season total: 70
20.4 Night WatchThe Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici
It all starts with a literary agent who has received a partial manuscript about a man who, while a student at university, worked for a famous Psychology professor who was found murdered in his home. The agent soon realizes that this is no fiction--it's a true-crime story. He wants to option the book, but in his attempts to acquire the full text finds out the author has died.
The next part of the book is written by a journalist hired by the literary agent to prove the verity of the partial manuscript and, hopefully, find the rest of the manuscript's pages. He uncovers more of the tale, eventually finding his way to the retired police detective who'd worked the case 25 years earlier.
The final section of the book is told from the detective's point of view. He was never satisfied with the person the courts pinned it on and decided to review the case after his meeting with the journalist.
I didn't love the writing, hated a few of the characters (not only for how terrible they were as people, but how flatly they were drawn), wasn't terribly satisfied with the ending, but it was an interesting enough journey to keep me reading. 3 stars.
+20 Task (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.7--"E.O."; 20.6 "ChiroviCi")
Task total: 40
Season total: 40
Deedee wrote: "My eldest daughter's name is Whitney -- we've never met a male Whitney, odd to think of it as a boy's name."My cousin married a guy named Whitney (Whit), so now I only think of it as a male name! Funny ;-)
20.10 First PersonDash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
+20 Task (fiction told in the first person by alternating narrators)
+15 Combo (10.9 "David"; 20.1 authors born in 1968 and 1972; 20.7--entirely set between the week before Christmas and New Years in New York)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1825
************
This will be my last post for the season, too. Thanks so much to the mods for a fantastic season and for all of their hard work!!
20.10 First PersonWarcross by Marie Lu
+20 Task (fiction, first person)
+15 Combo (10.8–shelved as fiction 200+ times; 10.9; 20.1–b. 1984)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1790
20.1 Lifetime You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.10 fiction in first person)
Task total: 25
Season total: 1755
15.2 PC2 There Is Beauty In the Bleeding by Christina Hart, 125 pages
+15 Task (written by a living author)
Task total: 15
+100 Completion bonus
+50 All living authors
Season total: 1700
20.1 LifetimeThe Brain Fog Fix: Reclaim Your Focus, Memory, and Joy in Just 3 Weeks by Mike Dow
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 30
Season total: 1535
20.10 First PersonThe Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
+20 Task (fiction written in first person)
+10 Combo (10.9, 20.1)
Task total: 30
Season total: 1505
Kate S wrote: "From Post 820Anika wrote: "20.10 First Person
Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar
+20 Task (non-fiction entirely comprised of letters/telegrams and diary ent..."
This is on me: I'm a dummy and accidentally typed "non-fiction" in my description of the book...it is actually a fictionalized account of the Bloomsbury Group (on the book's page, the top shelving is "Historical Fiction"). My brain must have been entirely elsewhere when I posted. Sorry for the mix-up!
