Katy’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2010)

Katy’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.3 Name of the Game

Watching from the Dark by Gytha Lodge

Square 7C - letter G - Goodreads author
Square 16B - letter E - author born in Europe (UK)
Square 10C - letter T - MPG thriller
Word = GET

+15 Task

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 45

15.2 Name of the Game

The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
820 Lexile

Square 14D - letter Y - MPG Mystery
Square 2B - letter E - author name has 2 Es
Square 3D - letter A - MPG adventure
Square 11B - letter H - MPG historical fiction
Word = YEAH

+15 Task

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 30

15.1 Name of the Game

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Square 15D - letter L - most recent book by author
Square 16E - letter E - 8 or more named char. (Noemi, Catalina, Florence, Virgil, Howard, Francis, Marta, Dr. Cummin, Dr. Camarillo)
Square 10E - letter T - no "the" in title
Word = LET

+15 Task

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 15

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Katy wrote: "Does Australia count as an island? (A very large one, I guess!)

Also locking in MPG of adventure for The Enigma Game"

No, sorry. Australia is a continent."

Ha ha, yes, I guess under that definition pretty much ever continent/continental mass would count :)

Does Australia count as an island? (A very large one, I guess!)

Also locking in MPG of adventure for The Enigma Game

20.2 Journalist

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

This, like the other semi-true-crime book I read recently, was not really what I think of as a true crime book, to be honest. This had a murder SORT of at the center of the book, but I would say it was more a portrayal of Savannah, GA at a particular point in time, full of colorful characters and wild events. John Berendt does a good job of capturing what appears to have been a wild place and time, but the actual murder that is theoretically the center of this book was less interesting in some ways. There was no mystery about who committed the crime, and very little mystery about why - the real question was what would the outcome of the trial be. I think you have to go into this book thinking of it as not a true crime or murder book but instead an elaborate, meandering portrait of a city, with a murder included.

+20 task
+20 combo (10.2 - MITGOGAEJB = JAM, 10.4, 10.6 - #171 on list, 10.7)
+5 oldies (published 1994)
+10 review
+10 not a novel

Task Total: 65
Season Total: 1065

(And that is really it! Thanks, moderators!)

20.9 Initiated

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

This was an interesting read - it was nominally about some horrific murders committed in 1984 by two Fundamentalist Mormon brothers, committed to polygamy, living in a small isolated town. It was really more about polygamy and Fundamentalism in general, along with the history of Mormonism, which provided the big picture for the murders but also was in and of itself a more sweeping nonfiction book. At first I didn't love the style, which jumped around in time (and I can see why it might be frequently unfinished!), but once I had the time frame down I enjoyed the book and got more and more into the story. Like the other book I'm about to finish in my last day of the season :), it's not really a true crime novel, it's a sweeping nonfiction picture of a big, fascinating topic.

+20 task (#348 on list)
+20 combo (10.2 - UTBOHJK = JOT, 10.7, 10.8 - UT, AZ, NY, MO, Canada, Mexico..., 20.2)
+10 review
+10 not a novel

Task total: 60
Season total: 1000

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 803 Katy wrote: "10.8 Jetsetters

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

No lexile score

+10 task (action in GA, NY, NJ among other states!)

Task Total: 10
Season Tot..."

Ooh, thanks Elizabeth!

20.8 Bedtime

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

In this Peter Wimsey installment, he and Bunter end up in a small village due to a broken car, where he fills in for an absent bell ringer for New Years. He makes friends in the town and is therefore called back to help when a body appears. This was probably my least favorite of the Sayers books I've read - I absolutely LOVE Gaudy Night and I also liked the other 3 I've read pretty well. This was fine but not more than that. I liked it well enough to keep reading, but not enough that I didn't get distracted and turn to other books in the middle! I read Elizabeth's review and I agree - there was a LOT about change bell ringing, probably more than I needed in my life, though it was interesting to learn what that was.

+20 task
+10 combo (20.3 - more than 20 works including mysteries, nonfiction, and poetry collections; 20.5 - "They made his lordship welcome and offered him a glass of homemade cowslip wine" ch 8)
+10 oldies (pub 1934)
+10 review

Task Total: 50
Season Total: 930

10.8 Jetsetters

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

No lexile score

+10 task (action in GA, NY, NJ among other states!)

Task Total: 10
Season Total: 880

10.7 Non-Fiction

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

Lexile 1000

Although this is the young people's version of Ibram X. Kendi's book Stamped from the Beginning, it's really its own book (a remix, as the authors call it) - bringing Kendi's research together with Reynolds' powerful voice and style - and it's great. I learned a ton, including things that I wish I had learned in school, and came to some new thinking about the ways that racism has always been deployed in the service of capitalism and that racist thinking, like all lines of thinking I suppose, has a history that we can trace (and then dismantle). I am an educator and I think this would be a great text to have available to kids and spark discussion. It also is a fantastic example of a powerful writing voice in nonfiction.

+10 task
+5 combo (10.2 - SRAAYJR --> JAR)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 870

20.10 Another Birthday

Rage by Bob Woodward

Whew, this was a timely read. I even was reading while I stood in line to vote this week! This is Woodward's second book about the Trump presidency, but for this one Trump agreed to participate and much of the book is drawn from 17 interviews with him. Though Woodward explores other subjects like the George Floyd murder, the two biggest topics are North Korea and COVID. It was fascinating reading this writeup of events I recall myself, and getting a little more insight into them - but also infuriating to read more about how many people in power knew what was likely to happen with COVID and didn't take action sooner. As the days ticked by in the book, I kept thinking "Oh, I was on an airplane then" or "Oh I attended a party that weekend" - I would have done neither had I known what Trump and his colleagues knew! In the end, much of this was not new to me, but Woodward's writing style and the drama of what I was reading kept it fascinating. And has made my anxieties about next week loom even larger...

+20 task (born 1943)
+30 combo (10.3; 10.4; 10.7; 10.8 - DC, Florida, NY, WA, NJ...; 20.2; 20.3 - this is his 20th title)
+10 review
+10 not a novel

Task Total: 70
Season Total: 835

10.3 Single

Class by Lucinda Rosenfeld

Interesting read. I checked this out because I had listened to the podcast "Nice White Parents" (which is excellent!) and have been doing a lot of other nonfiction reading about school choices and their impact on race & racism, gentrification, etc. This is fiction - satire, in fact - that deals with those same issues.

I didn't like any of the major characters, really, or most of the minor characters. But I somehow still managed to like the book - not love it, but like it, for what it is, which is an over-exaggerated, satirical look at upper middle class white parents and the near-arms race to get their kids into the "right" public school, conflicting with their desire (in the abstract, at least) to support school desegregation.

+10 task
+5 combo (20.5 - "As Karen took two wineglasses down from the shelf and emptied a recently opened bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc into them...")
+10 review

Task Total: 25
Season Total: 765

20.7 P.I.

Mary Russell's War And Other Stories of Suspense by Laurie R. King

Totally delightful collection if you've read some of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell books (I think she's up to something like #17 full length novels in the series!). I am a big fan of the series and have read most of them, and so this collection was like coming home to old friends. (If you haven't read any of the books I'd imagine it's a bit more confusing). Mary Russell is Sherlock Holmes' protege, co-investigator, and eventually wife, in this series. The stories in this collection fill in a number of gaps within the series, from Mary's childhood to Holmes' perspective on their meeting, and mysteries referred to in passing but not elaborated on in other books. Each story of course also contains some mystery and crime, or retelling of crime, large or small. It actually made me want to go back and re-read the series, though that's a large undertaking at this point!

+20 task (Mary Russell is Sherlock Holmes' protege and co-detective)
+15 combo (10.2 - MRWAOSOSLRK = WAR; 10.4, 20.3 - I'm counting 29 full length works, though I might be missing some!)
+10 not-a-novel (short stories)
+10 review

Task Total: 55
Season Total: 740

10.1 Short Works

Out Now: Queer We Go Again! by Saundra Mitchell

This is a collection of stories with LGBTQ protagonists from current popular authors (and some new up and comers!). There's a wide range in the anthology - some I loved and some I thought were just okay. "Victory Lap" by Julian Winters was a standout - beautiful writing and sweet, funny story. "What Happens in the Closet" by Caleb Roehrig was fun (gay vampires!). The collection ranged across realistic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and a few stories that straddled the genre boundary a bit. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, you probably will be! There is something for everyone.

+10 task (anthology)
+10 not a novel
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Season Total: 685

I was trying to sort out if my book for this task was YA based on the individual stories but came across this in the FAQs -

Note (added Winter 16/17)
A single volume that contains multiple titles will not be used to determine YA. In the case of short story collections, omnibuses, essay collections and other multi-title volumes, the volume will be accepted for applicable tasks and styles

Does this mean that for anthologies, YA designation is not an issue? I am looking at Out Now: Queer We Go Again!, which contains stories by a number of YA authors but is actually not listed (I think) at BPL - http://catalog.brooklynpubliclibrary....

10.9 Autumn Leaves

Crimson Lake by Candice Fox

People who know my taste in mysteries have recommended this book to me several times, and it was definitely right up my alley. It's the first book in an Australian mystery series. Ted, an ex-cop who was accused (falsely, if he's to be believed!) of a horrific abduction of a child, had the charges dismissed, and moved to an isolated area of a tiny town in a different part of the country. He's still dealing with public outrage, nightly vandals, and police harasssment, objecting to his presence in the town. But he meets Amanda, an ex-prisoner from the area who is out of prison and has opened a private investigation service - the only one in the area, so she gets clients despite her past. Ted joins her and they take on the case of a missing writer. The highlights of this book for me were the characters - both Ted and Amanda were interesting and well-developed - and the setting, full of crocodiles and pythons and menace, both natural and human!

+10 task
+10 combo (20.5 - "I sipped my wine" on page 215; 20.7 - MC is an ex-cop who joins the other main character in her private detective agency)
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Season Total: 655

20.5 Wine

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

This was a unique read for me - one of the rare books that I almost abandoned early on, but came to really, really like and am so glad I didn't give it up. This has been described as a thriller about gentrification, and "Get Out meets gentrification" - both of which are accurate, but what made the difference for me was in fact thinking of it as a horror move, a la Get Out (which I loved). My initial complaint was that the characters felt exaggerated - but if I'm reading this as, basically, a horror movie, that is pretty typical and not a drawback (as opposed to seeing it as a quieter type of psychological thriller). I came to really appreciate some of the characters, particularly the protagonist Sydney, and enjoy the over-the-top tension in the spirit it was intended. And I learned a lot about some completely real and totally terrifying immoral real estate practices that undergirded the story.

+20 task (many references! Including "I grab the bottle of wine and start to read" in chapter 9)
+5 combo (10.2 - WNOIWAC = WIN)
+10 review

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 625

10.4 Pilgrim

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

This is installment #13 in the Armand Gamache series - I always listen to these on audio, even when the narrator changed, and it feels like stopping in to visit a friend each time. It's just a homey, friendly series - despite the abundance of corruption and murder. In this entry in the series, Penny introduces the "cobrador del frac", a Spanish debt collector who basically shames people into paying - which is true, and fascinating!! However, in Penny's story, the cobrador isn't collecting financial debts, but moral. As always, there are twists, and moral dilemmas, and witty banter. Gamache is now in charge of the Surete de Quebec, and takes on commensurately difficult challenges with his typical cast of characters.

+10 task
+10 combo (20.2, 20.5 - "'Please,' said Reine-Marie, and accepted the glass of red wine." - chapter 19)
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Season Total: 590

10.2 Scrabble

White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America by Margaret A. Hagerman

This was a fascinating book - I finished it yesterday and have already recommended it to someone. It's a sociological study but doesn't read like someone's dissertation (it might have been, but again, doesn't read like that!). Hagerman embeds herself in a Midwestern community, studying upper middle class white families in 3 different neighborhoods. She's specifically looking at how kids make sense of race, and how parents' overt decisions about where to live and where to send kids to school impact that -- and of course how parents' less conscious comments and small decisions (how to describe a neighborhood or a person, how to answer kids' questions...) impact that as well. The takeaway was (of course!) that it's complicated - it's hard to raise kids with a lot of privilege (in this case, class and race) to not take it for granted, and even harder when kids are in fairly homogenous bubbles.

+10 task (WKGUWPIARDAMAH = pig)
+5 combo (10.7)
+10 review
+10 not a novel

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 560