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

Katy’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

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FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Oct 09, 2020 05:34PM

20.2 Journalist

His & Hers by Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney is a check-out-of-the-library-immediately author for me. I like her plots primarily - they still have the ability to surprise me. I thought I had this one figured out early, but Feeney still managed to throw in a twist I didn't expect. This book, told in alternating chapters between Jack, a detective in the village of Blackdown, and his ex-wife Anna, a BBC anchor. Both grew up in the small British village of Blackdown and are brought back there, and brought together, by a murder of someone they both knew. From there, the story progresses until we finally learn the full truth, on the very last page. There is some gruesomeness, as there often is with Feeney's books, and this one took me longer to get hooked on than her others, but paid off in the end.

+20 task
+10 combo (10.2 - HHAF = AHA; 20.5 - near constant wine references including "I sat right in front of it, wrapped in a blanket, gulping down the wine")
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 525

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Oct 09, 2020 05:29PM

20.2 Journalist

Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why by Alexandra Petri

You may know Alexandra Petri's columns for the Washington Post - she is funny and gets reposted quite often on social media. I had read some of these before, but not most of them. This book is a collection of columns mostly from the last four years - plus a few older ones. She is funny and offers pretty clever digs at the news, and I enjoyed each column on its own. It actually felt like a lot to read them all together - her style started to run together for me - but several of the individual essays are standouts. One thing that surprised me was the overtly poignant moments in addition to the humor - one essay is called "How to Sleep at Night When Families Are Being Separated at the Border" and it begins "The trick is forgetting that they are children. If you remember that they are children, you will not be able to go on with any of this. If you remember when you were a child, and frightened, and everything seemed impossibly big and loud and sharp and hard except a certain pair of familiar arms, this will have to stop."

+20 task
+10 combo (10.2 - NIWAHIWAP = NAP, 10.7)
+10 Not a novel (collection of columns)
+10 review

Task Total: 50
Season Total: 485

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Oct 09, 2020 05:24PM

10.10 Group Reads

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Thanks, Kate, for suggesting this as a group reads book -- I might never have picked it up on my own and I absolutely LOVED it! The book moves back and forth across 3 time periods -- Ava in modern day Louisiana, her ancestor Josephine in 1925, and Josephine as a child in slavery. There's so much to this book - echoes of one story in another, echoes of history in the present, and small moments that reveal racial rifts more clearly than large scale events. Each storyline grabbed and held my attention, and the writing was gorgeous. Highly, highly recommended!

+10 task
+10 combo (10.4, 20.5 - a lot of wine including "I pour myself a tall glass of wine to wait it out")
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Season Total: 435

FA 20 20.2 Journalist (119 new)

Oct 04, 2020 05:43AM

A few that I think will be okay, posting only because I think we are supposed to post here first before claiming?

Bob Woodward

Alexandra Petri - she is a columnist for the Washington Post

Alice Feeney - in GR bio, former BBC journalist

John Berendt - former editor of New York Magazine

And one marginal!

Louisa May Alcott - http://www.jprof.com/2018/05/30/louis...

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Oct 02, 2020 05:02PM

20.5 Wine

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

+20 task ("we all take a sip. The wine tastes rich and deep, almost like you can feel how old it is.")
No Lexile

+20 task

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 405

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Oct 02, 2020 05:00PM

20.1 Award

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

WOW this was a pretty intense book! I think Rebekah said earlier in the thread that after finishing she needed time before managing a review. I felt the same - had to wait a bit. It really stays with you. The writing style is so straightforward and simple but with a devastating clarity. (I suppose that is why he's a Pulitzer winner!) The injustices and brutality, not just of the school but of the world, are told in such a straightforward manner that it's almost possible to have them slip by without noticing - then suddenly you'll remember and it hits hard. The main characters being so likable, and the fact that the story is based on real life, and seems to be very true to what happened at the school in Florida, make it all the more gutting.

+20 task
+10 combo (20.2, 20.4)
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 385

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 28, 2020 09:08AM

10.7 Non-Fiction

Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad

If you are an educator (I know there are a lot of us on here!) I highly recommend this book. If you aren't, it may not be of much interest! I would say that it's one of the best professional books for teaching I've read in a while, and I read a lot! Muhammad's central point is in her work unearthing the history of Black literary societies in the 1800s and what we as educators (particularly literacy educators) can learn from them - she names this work the "historically responsive teaching" model. I was astonished to learn the history behind this, for one thing - I had no idea about the significance of these literary societies! And the conclusions she draws around how we can make our instruction foster more knowledge development, critical thinking, and identity development alongside skill development are exciting and fresh. As a side note, the author is also a terrific speaker - she's been doing a ton of Zoom events this summer around this book and she's very dynamic, interesting, engaging, even in the online format.

+10 task (education related nonfiction)
+5 combo (10.2 - CGAEFFCAHRLGM = GEM)
+10 not-a-novel
+10 review

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 345

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 28, 2020 09:01AM

20.4 Similar

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I absolutely loved this book and tore through it in a short time, despite (still) looming work deadlines. Bennett's writing style is just effortless to read, but when I looked closer it stood up to the scrutiny. Her use of time shifts isn't jarring and feels powerful. Her characterization is masterful. The book is the story of two twins who grew up in a town made up of all light-skinned Black people. The twins leave home at 16 and one ends up passing as white for her whole life, leaving her family behind in the process. The story follows the two sisters and their children through their lives, as they separate and then intersect again. The book made me think, made me feel, and transported me into a truly unique story.

+20 task (from The Nickel Boys)
+10 combo (10.8 - Mass., Calif., Louisiana; 20.5 - “Loretta eyed her for a second, then took a sip of wine" at 49%)
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 310

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 21, 2020 07:55PM

20.5 Wine

The Herd by Andrea Bartz

This was a fun read if you enjoy psychological thrillers. The Herd is set around a trendy all-women coworking space (called The Herd) in Manhattan, founded by minor celebrity Eleanor Walsh. On the eve of a major business announcement, Eleanor goes missing. The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Katie and Hana, sisters from Michigan who are longtime friends of Eleanor. Hana and Eleanor (along with their third friend, Mikki) were best friends in college and work alongside Eleanor at The Herd. Katie, the younger "tagalong" sister, is a journalist and recently came back to NY after a bad research experience back in Michigan. All of the women are caught up in the search for Eleanor and its ultimate revelations. The book did keep me guessing, and while I don't necessarily think it's the best of the genre, I enjoyed reading it.

+20 task ("Katie finished her glass of wine" - chapter 6)
+15 combo (10.2 - bath from THAB, 10.8 - NY, MA, and MI, 20.2)
+10 review

Task Total: 45
Season Total: 270

FA 20 20.2 Journalist (119 new)

Sep 21, 2020 06:51PM

Can I confirm Andrea Bartz? Her GR bio describes her as a journalist.

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 21, 2020 06:50PM

10.5 Monster Redux

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I liked this book MUCH more than I expected to. I thought it would be a light, fun read, and in some ways it was - I laughed aloud a few times, and it was an addictive read. And the plot is basically summed up in the title! But as I got closer to the end, I felt like there was more to it than met the eye. The author's forward hints at this - he writes "I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom." I kept coming back to that because the book had SO much to say as a metaphor for race and gender relationships and biases. I think it's a truism to say that societies fear the monsters that represent their biggest real fears. Here, the vampire is bleeding the town and its people dry, he's bleeding family relationships dry, he's poisoning relationships between black and white residents of the town, he's pulling away all the veneer and making the ugly parts visible - particularly the ways women are treated.

+10 task
+5 combo (20.5 - "Kitty downed her entire glass of wine in a single gulp." - chapter 19)
+10 review

Task Total: 25
Season Total: 225

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 16, 2020 08:36AM

20.10 Another Birthday?

The Outsider by Stephen King

I always enjoy Stephen King's writing (and am in awe of his productivity!) and this one was another page-turner. This book tells the story of an unspeakable crime committed, with DNA and eyewitnesses fingering a popular coach. Police soon discover that he also has an out-of-state alibi, on camera. I've read some reviews that say that this book (and a lot of his later books) suffer from some repetitiveness and from falling into some tropes he tends to overuse. There was definitely some of that -- some character types he'll go to over and over again, some that seem pretty cliche, and not particularly well-rounded as characters -- but for the most part I'm grabbing a book like this for writing that flows, and for plot, and this had both of those things. Another critique is the fact that it starts out reading like a mystery but turns to some supernatural elements. I didn't mind that, because I expected it, and the plot drew me in and carried me through. The book was well worth it if you like the mystery/paranormal/horror-y genre blending.

+20 task (born 1947)
+10 combo (10.8 - OK, TX, and OH, 20.3)
+5 jumbo (561 pg)
+10 review

Task Total: 45
Season Total: 200

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 16, 2020 07:41AM

30.1 Go for the Green

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist by Dorothy Gilman

+30 task (set about 80% in Jordan)
+20 bonus (blue on spreadsheet)
+15 combo (10.2 - MPITDG = pit, 10.4, 20.3 - at least 23 books listed for her on GR)

Task Total: 65
Season Total: 155

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 16, 2020 07:35AM

20.3 Prolific

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

What an unusual book! Not at all what I expected. I think because my first thought when I hear "Michael Crichton" is Jurassic Park (and the movie, not the book!), I assume it'll be a fast paced thrill type book, and I forget that Crichton actually was trained in science. The book is written in day by day chunks, like a reconstruction or journal entry, complete with data sets and transmissions included. The story tells about a bacteria that arrives in the U.S. from space, via a satellite, killing instantly, and the race against time to figure out what it is and what to do about it. The scientific details are slow going at first but once I had a sense of what I was dealing with, the pace picked up and I was eager to read on. I did feel like the ending was somewhat abrupt - I was shocked when I looked down and saw how little was left, and wondered how on earth things would get wrapped up in time!

+20 task (wrote 29 books)
+5 combo (10.2 - TASMC = mast)
+5 oldies (first pub 1969)
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 90

FA 20 Completed Tasks (951 new)

Sep 16, 2020 07:27AM

20.2 Journalist

How the Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle Over School Choice by Robert Pondiscio

This book, which details a year in the life of Success Academy, a "no excuses" charter school with many schools around NYC, is certainly going to appeal to a pretty niche audience, but if you're at all interested in education and enjoy well written nonfiction, it might be worth picking up. I was and am critical of this book, but the writing and structure is excellent, so it was a good read in that sense. There were places that I don't think his facts are presented quite accurately, though these are small enough details that if you're not in education they won't stand out to you (e.g. at one point he admires how Success Academy uses a 2012 6th grade test passage with 4th graders - which suggests they are super advanced, but in reality I know the passage and the reading level used on the test in 2012 really has moved to the point that now that IS a 4th grade passage).

But my bigger issues were some logical contradictions I don't think he resolved enough. Maybe they're not resolvable - but the book seems to suggest that they are, and he's solved them, and I disagree. One tension is that he seems to suggest that schools serving low-income kids are EITHER chaotic messes OR, basically, this (very regimented, highly paternalistic). That just isn't true - there are schools all along that spectrum, and while you could decide that the S.A. approach is the way to go, you certainly don't have to. A second tension is the suggestion he continually makes, quite explicitly, that schools serving middle-class and wealthy kids are uniformly filled with kids who value school and achievement, pay attention, work hard, behave well, and whose parents are fervently committed to their schoolwork. Having attended such a school myself, even 30 years ago, I know that's just not the case. Absolutely there are differences, and there are ways that behavior management comes into play differently, but I absolutely sat next to (middle class) kids who didn't care about school, cheated, didn't do homework, fooled around in class, etc. The fact that their life outcomes were not tanked by stupid behavior in middle school is a different story (and appropriate, I would say, given what we know about 12 year olds!). And finally, I know the author has a strong bias toward a particular kind of curriculum, which interestingly enough S.A. doesn't have. Instead of rethinking his bias, he posits that they succeed in spite of, not because of, their curriculum. That could be true, but if you're using their test scores to justify other aspects of their school design, I'm not sure why you would assume that the curriculum they use is irrelevant.

+ 20 task (approved in help thread)
+ 10 combo (10.2 - tiles are HTOHLRP, word is HOP; 10.7)
+ 10 review
+ 10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)

Task Total: 50
Season Total: 50

FA 20 20.2 Journalist (119 new)

Sep 09, 2020 07:55PM

Can I please have Robert Pondiscio approved as a former journalist? His bio here - https://fordhaminstitute.org/about/fo... - says he spent 20 years in journalism.

FA 20 20.7 P.I. (14 new)

Sep 09, 2020 11:15AM

So, this may be a silly question, but does Sherlock Holmes count? I don't know whether he makes a living from detecting or does it just as a hobby. I don't know that I've ever heard any discussion of his making money from his cases!

If he does, would this series work? Mary Russell is his protege and also takes on clients - https://www.goodreads.com/series/4096.... They take on cases at the behest of clients together - which seems like private detection, but again, unsure if they're paid!

FA 20 20.2 Journalist (119 new)

Sep 06, 2020 10:54AM

How about Teresa Carpenter?

FA 20 20.4 Similar (30 new)

Aug 22, 2020 07:08PM

From Nickel Boys, I'd like to lock in Long Bright River, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, and The Glass Hotel!

Mysteries Challenge (37 new)

Aug 09, 2020 05:58PM