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

Katy’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

10.6 Not Quite Jumbo

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

+10 task (450 pages)
+10 combo (10.5, 10.9 - pub 2019)

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 130

Would Disappearing Earth work? Several reviews mention sense of place. I agree! (And thought it was terrific).

https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all...

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/reade...

20.9 The Season of Shorter Days

A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers by Victor LaValle

+20 task (collection of stories by multiple authors)
+15 combo (10.1 - Andrea rated it 5 stars, 10.2, 10.9)

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 110

10.5 Debut

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

+10 task (debut book by this author)
+5 combo (10.9 - pub 2019)
+10 female

Task Total: 25
Season Total: 75

20.6 Stand up For Your Rights

Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America by Nefertiti Austin

+20 task (much of the book is about racial discrimination in adoption processes and foster care)
+5 combo (10.9)
+10 female author

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 50

10.2 ANNIVERSARY

Stone Cold by David Baldacci

+10 task
+5 combo (Susan)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 15

If the GR description references a sense of place, do we need pre-approval? I am looking at The Travelers specifically! The last paragraph of the description mentions the sense of place.

20.9 Shipwrecked!

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

I have enjoyed pretty much everything I've read by Erik Larson -- I find him engaging, well-researched, and well-written. This was no exception. This book, as the title suggests, tells the story of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat during World War I. I was intrigued and enjoyed the book for the storyline and I was amazed (and somewhat ashamed!) to realize how little I knew about the sinking of the Lusitania, what led up to it, and the fallout from that event (I had even forgotten the Zimmermann telegram from high school history!). I was fascinated to learn about Germany's approach to U-boat warfare, and the suggestions that potentially it was to the UK's benefit to have the ship sunk, as it drew the US into the war (eventually).

+20 task
+10 combo (10.7, 20.4 - born 1954)
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 review

Task Total: 50
Season Total: 300

15.4 PnM A1

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (810 lexile)

+15 Task (set in North America - U.S. and Canada)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 250

20.5 Non-Linear

Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America by Martin Duberman

This book took me forever but was well worth it. I actually started thinking about tracking it down over the summer in honor of the actual Stonewall anniversary, and it just never happened. I'm so glad I got to it in the end! Martin Duberman is one of the premier LGBT historians out there and this is really a great piece of history and a great piece of writing. He tells the story leading up to, during, and after the Stonewall riots in 1969, through six different people who were involved in various ways (some not heavily involved but important to add dimension to the story). We learn about their childhood and early adulthood, as a way to learn about various kinds of LGBT experiences pre-Stonewall, and we learn about the actual riot, and then the aftermath. What struck me most was hearing in more personal detail about some of the police harassment tactics -- I knew the facts but not the impact on real people -- and then, because I'm really interested in organizational politics, it was interesting to read about the internal conflicts between different groups and people as they battled about the best way to effect change.

+20 task (told from multiple POV, overlapping timelines, not always a forward progression in time)
+10 combo (10.7, 20.8 - Mendelvium Md)
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 review

Task Total: 50
Season Total: 230

10.3 Andre Gide

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

This was a FANTASTIC read. I'm so happy I chose it and waited out the interminable library hold line! The story is a sort of near-dystopian setting, in modern day New York but with the twist of a "farm" for gestational surrogates, where women who are carrying babies for extremely wealthy couples are confined in luxurious surroundings. Though the surrogates are well paid and well treated, they are tracked and surveilled, unable to leave, and as the story goes on, darker sides to the "farm" are revealed. The story is told from alternating perspectives -- Mae, the founder of the farm, Jane, a Filipino surrogate, Jane's cousin who is caring for Jane's baby in her absence, and other characters.

Obviously the idea of gestational surrogacy isn't fictional (or dystopian) but the small twists that the author puts on what is a commonly acceptable practice make it slightly dystopian and really compelling, raising questions of class and what it's okay for money to buy, and how money can control our lives. Joanne Ramos's writing is sharp, nuanced, and really readable. I very much enjoyed this one!

+10 task
+10 review

Task Total: 20
Season Total:

15.3 Pick 'n' Mix 2

D2 Genre - Mystery

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

Task total: 15
Season total: 160

20.7 Spec Fic

The Stand by Stephen King

I have been working on this book for a looooong time, encompassing several rounds of the common cold, which is horrifying while reading this book! It was quite an adventure. The book tells the story of a superflu that wipes out 99% of the population, leaving only a handful of survivors, who coalesce into basically two camps, good and evil. There are psychic/spiritual elements, fantastical happenings, angels and demons, the works. But there are also threads of the story that contemplate how society might put itself together after such an event -- would we join up? Would it be every man for himself? Would we recreate all our old systems, for better and worse? I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot, then the next chunk, as survivors are realizing what's happening and starting to journey, felt slow to me. About halfway through, the whole thing picked up and it felt like classic Stephen King page-turning. Overall, a good read for sure, though definitely an investment of time (and not a great read for a sick day!).

+20 task (shelved by 111 users)
+15 combo (10.3, 20.4 - born 1947, 20.5 - multiple POV, overlapping and reverse time, flashbacks)
+10 review
+5 oldies (pub 1978)
+25 jumbo (1153 pages)

Task Total: 75
Season Total: 145

15.2 Pick N Mix 2
A3 Set in Europe

Out of Bounds by Val McDermid

+15 task (set in Scotland)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 70

15.1 Pick N Mix 2
E6 - Title has q, x, or z

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Alissa Quart

+15 task

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 55

20.1 Inaugural

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

This was a phenomenal way to start the season! Set in Nigeria, the title kind of sums up the big idea of the book. Korede, the main character and a hospital nurse, is keeping her a secret for her sister, Ayoola -- Ayoola has killed 3 of her boyfriends. And she always calls Korede to pick up the pieces for her (sort of literally!). Now, Ayoola is dating someone Korede knows and cares for. The book is described on GR as "blackly comic" which is partly a good description -- it felt light, with spare prose, easy to read -- but there's a powerful emotional undercurrent as you read on and learn more about the girls' present and past. And the implied ethical dilemmas around protecting family, doing the right thing, friendships, secrets, and more, are compelling. I couldn't put it down!

+20 task (2019 long list)
+10 combo (10.7, 20.5 - chapters set in the past alternate with storyline)
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 40

15.10 Ratings Game

75,000 - 99,999 ratings

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

+30 task (87,743 ratings)
+5 non-fiction
+100 finisher bonus

Task Total: 135
Season Total: 920

Rebekah wrote: "Katy wrote: "15.9 RG

Over 250,000 ratings

Educated by Tara Westover

+30 task (384,395 ratings)
+5 Nonfiction

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 730"

Wasn’t that ..."

Yes!!!

20.5 London

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

+20 task
+30 combo (10.3, 10.8, 20.1, 20.2, 20.4, 20.6)
+5 oldies (published 1933)

Task Total: 55
Season Total: 785

15.9 RG

Over 250,000 ratings

Educated by Tara Westover

+30 task (384,395 ratings)
+5 Nonfiction

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 730